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  3. Cambridge Library Collection - Philosophy

This series contains both philosophical texts and critical essays about philosophy, concentrating especially on works originally published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It covers a broad range of topics including ethics, logic, metaphysics, aesthetics, utilitarianism, positivism, scientific method and political thought. It also includes biographies and accounts of the history of philosophy, as well as collections of papers by leading figures. In addition to this series, primary texts by ancient philosophers and works with particular relevance to philosophy of science, politics or theology may be found elsewhere in the Cambridge Library Collection.

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108 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Philosophy

Page 5 of 6

The Works of Francis Bacon
  • Volume 9, The Letters and the Life 2
  • Francis Bacon
  • Edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, Douglas Denon Heath
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1862
  • Francis Bacon (1561–1626), the English philosopher, statesman and jurist, is best known for developing the empiricist method which forms the basis of modern science. Bacon's writings concentrated on philosophy and judicial reform. His most significant work is the Instauratio Magna comprising two parts - The Advancement of Learning and the Novum Organum. The first part is noteworthy as the first major philosophical work published in English (1605). James Spedding (1808–81) and his co-editors arranged this fourteen-volume edition, published in London between 1857 and 1874, not in chronological order but by subject matter, so that different volumes would appeal to different audiences. The material is divided into three parts: philosophy and general literature; legal works; and letters, speeches and tracts relating to politics. Volume 9, published in 1862, contains letters and political writings from 1595 to 1601, including papers relating to the treason trial of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

Essays on Truth and Reality
  • F. H. Bradley
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1914
  • F. H. Bradley (1846–1924) was the foremost philosopher of the British Idealist school, which came to prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century and remained influential into the first half of the twentieth. Bradley, who was educated at Oxford, and spent his life as a fellow of Merton College, was influenced by Hegel, and also reacted against utilitarianism. He was recognised during his lifetime as one of the greatest intellectuals of his generation and was the first philosopher to receive the Order of Merit, in 1924. This collection of some of Bradley's most important journal articles was first published in 1914. He examines coherence and identity theories of truth, and discusses pragmatism and radical empiricism. The book contains extensive discussion of the work of Bertrand Russell and William James, while other essays cover a range of different subjects such as faith, memory, error and God.

Collected Essays
  • Volume 5, Science and the Christian Tradition
  • Thomas Henry Huxley
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    29 December 2011
    First published in:
    1894
  • Known as 'Darwin's Bulldog', the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) was a tireless supporter of the evolutionary theories of his friend Charles Darwin. Huxley also made his own significant scientific contributions, and he was influential in the development of science education despite having had only two years of formal schooling. He established his scientific reputation through experiments on aquatic life carried out during a voyage to Australia while working as an assistant surgeon in the Royal Navy; ultimately he became President of the Royal Society (1883–5). Throughout his life Huxley struggled with issues of faith, and he coined the term 'agnostic' to describe his beliefs. This nine-volume collection of Huxley's essays, which he edited and published in 1893–4, demonstrates the wide range of his intellectual interests. In Volume 5, Huxley discusses the doctrines of Christianity and explains how his dissatisfaction with conventional religion led him to agnosticism.

Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic
  • John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1896
  • What is the nature of dialectic according to Hegel? And what is achieved by its means? These are the main questions that John McTaggart (1866–1925) seeks to answer in this work, first published in 1896. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Cambridge-educated philosopher and fellow of Trinity College enjoyed a prominent position within the circle of idealist philosophers, and was regarded as one of England's leading Hegel scholars. Although a proponent of the German philosopher's dialectical thinking in general, McTaggart was not uncritical of Hegel's philosophy and objected to his application of abstract thought. In this work, McTaggart not only gives the reader a thorough introduction to Hegel's understanding of the dialectic method but also exposes a number of points on which he considers Hegel's teaching to be inaccurate: one of these is Hegel's insistence that evil is merely a delusion.

The Principles of Logic
  • Volume 1
  • F. H. Bradley
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1922
  • F. H. Bradley (1846–1924) was the foremost philosopher of the British Idealist school, which came to prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century and remained influential into the first half of the twentieth. Bradley, who was influenced by Hegel and also reacted against utilitarianism, was recognised during his lifetime as one of the greatest intellectuals of his generation, and was the first philosopher to receive the Order of Merit, in 1924. In this major work, originally published in 1883, Bradley discusses the basic principles of logic: judgment and inference. He rejects the idea of a separation between mind and body, arguing that human thought cannot be separated from its worldly context. In the second edition, published in 1922 and reissued here, Bradley added a commentary and essays, but left the text largely unaltered. Volume 1 contains Book 1 on judgment and Book 2 on inference.

The Principles of Political Economy
  • Henry Sidgwick
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1887
  • Henry Sidgwick, (1838–1900), philosopher, classicist, lecturer and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and supporter of women's university education, is well known for his Method of Ethics (1874), a significant and influential book on moral theory. First published in 1883, this work considers the role the state plays (and ought to play) in economic life, and whether economics should be considered an Art or a Science. Sidgwick applies his utilitarian views to economics, defending John Stuart Mill's 1848 treatise of the same name. The book calls for a return to traditional political economy by eliminating 'needless polemics'. Sidgwick also outlines the need to bridge the gap between his analytical or deductive method and the inductive method employed by Mill's critics, the new generation of economic philosophers including John Elliot Cairnes and William Stanley Jevons. The second edition, reissued here, was published in 1887.

Force and Matter
  • Empirico-Philosophical Studies, Intelligibly Rendered
  • Ludwig Büchner
  • Edited and translated by J. Frederick Collingwood
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    01 December 2011
    First published in:
    1864
  • At a time when German philosophy was dominated by idealism, German philosopher and physician Ludwig Büchner (1824–99) wrote Kraft und Stoff, an influential work advocating materialism, in 1855. It went through many editions and was widely read across the world. The controversy surrounding the book led to Büchner leaving his post at the University of Tübingen, but he went on to establish the German Freethinkers' League, the first German organisation for atheists. This book, first published in 1864, is a translation of the eighth edition, and is edited by J. Frederick Collingwood, who wanted to bring Büchner's work to an English audience. It contains translations of the prefaces from the first, third and fourth editions of Kraft und Stoff, and an introductory letter from Büchner which expresses his belief that Darwin's theory of evolution has given support to his materialist theory.

Knowledge and Reality
  • A Criticism of Mr F. H. Bradley's ‘Principles of Logic'
  • Bernard Bosanquet
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    29 December 2011
    First published in:
    1885
  • After more than a decade teaching ancient Greek history and philosophy at University College, Oxford, British philosopher and political theorist Bernard Bosanquet (1848–1923) resigned from his post to spend more time writing. He was particularly interested in contemporary social theory, and was involved with the Charity Organisation Society and the London Ethical Society. He wrote numerous articles before beginning this book, which was his first and was published in 1885 as a response to the Principles of Logic, published in 1883, by his contemporary F. H. Bradley (1846–1924). Bosanquet, who was deeply influenced by the German philosopher Hegel (1770–1831), argues that there are 'signs of a philosophical movement in this country which may assimilate what is really great in European philosophy, without forfeiting the distinctive merits of English thought'. With this as the framework, the book examines the relationship of judgment and logic to knowledge.

Logic
  • Or, the Morphology of Knowledge
  • Volume 1
  • Bernard Bosanquet
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1888
  • After more than a decade teaching ancient Greek history and philosophy at University College, Oxford, British philosopher and political theorist Bernard Bosanquet (1848–1923) resigned from his post to spend more time writing. He was particularly interested in contemporary social theory, and was involved with the Charity Organisation Society and the London Ethical Society. Much of his work focused on the place of logic in philosophy, especially its role in metaphysical thought - the area where he is considered to have made his most important intellectual contributions. In 1888 he published this two-volume study of logic, addressing a variety of questions relating to logic, and drawing from the work of Hegel (1770–1831) in his examination. In Volume 1, Bosanquet considers the question of knowledge, what the act of naming implies, and judgment and measurement, which he considered to be integral to logic and consciousness.

Culture and Anarchy
  • An Essay in Political and Social Criticism
  • Matthew Arnold
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    24 November 2011
    First published in:
    1869
  • By the middle of the nineteenth century, culture was often considered to be nothing but a meaningless 'smattering of Latin and Greek'. In this work, first published in 1869, Matthew Arnold (1822–88) redefines culture as a striving for 'the best that has been thought or said', and as a contrast to 'philistinism' and the over-valuation of the practical. Critical of the uninspiring lifestyles of many of his religious and non-religious contemporaries, he raises the controversial issue of how to lead a good life, aesthetically, intellectually and morally. He introduces a middle road between classical and Judaeo-Christian ideals ('Hellenism' and 'Hebraism') which promotes the state over the individual, a position that has often prompted his critics to consider him an authoritarian thinker. A fascinating piece of social and political criticism, and an adjunct to Arnold's poetry, this work was both controversial when it was first published, and enormously influential thereafter.

An Inquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principles of Common Sense
  • Thomas Reid
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1818
  • Thomas Reid (1710–96), the Scottish natural and moral philosopher, was one of the founding members of the Aberdeen Philosophical Society and a significant figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. Reid believed that common sense should form the foundation of all philosophical inquiry. He criticised the sceptical philosophy propagated by his fellow Scot David Hume and the Anglo-Irish bishop George Berkeley, who asserted that the external world did not exist outside the human mind. Reid was also critical of the theory of ideas propagated by Locke and Descartes, arguing that it was incompatible with physical and experiential facts. For Reid, our senses demonstrate that the external world must exist, and this work is organised in chapters examining each of the senses in turn. The book, based on his lectures, was first published in 1764 when Reid was a regent professor at King's College, Aberdeen, and was reissued in 1818.

Studies in Hegelian Cosmology
  • John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1901
  • John McTaggart (1866–1925) was a Cambridge philosopher, famous for his metaphysical theory that time is not real and that temporal order is an illusion. Although best known for his contributions to the philosophy of time, McTaggart also spent a large part of his career expounding Hegel's work. In this book, first published in 1901, he discusses which views on a range of topics in metaphysics and ethics are compatible with Hegel's logic and idea of 'the Absolute'. Some early work on theories for which McTaggart later became well known can be found in this work, such as his beliefs that humans are immortal, that the Absolute is not in any sense a person, and that love is the relation that binds people together. In this book he also discusses punishment, sin, morality and whether Hegel could be considered a Christian.

Works of Thomas Hill Green
  • Volume 2, Philosophical Works
  • Thomas Hill Green
  • Edited by R. L. Nettleship
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1886
  • Thomas Hill Green (1836–82) was one of the most influential English thinkers of his time, and he made significant contributions to the development of political liberalism. Much of his career was spent at Balliol College, Oxford: having begun as a student of Benjamin Jowett, he later acted effectively as his second-in-command at the college. Interested for his whole career in social questions, Green supported the temperance movement, the extension of the franchise, and the admission of women to university education. He became Whyte's professor of moral philosophy at Oxford in 1878, and his lectures had a lasting influence on a generation of students. Volume 2, published in 1886, consists of Green's unpublished lecture notes. The Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation drew criticism upon Nettleship, Green's pupil and editor, for his editorial interventions: the idea of 'common good' was thought to vary significantly here from Green's other writings.

Social Rights and Duties
  • Addresses to Ethical Societies
  • Volume 2
  • Leslie Stephen
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1896
  • Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and a writer on philosophy, ethics, and literature, was educated at Eton, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained as a fellow and a tutor for a number of years. Though a sickly child, he later became a keen and successful mountaineer, taking part in first ascents of nine peaks in the Alps. In 1871 he became editor of the Cornhill Magazine. During his eleven-year tenure, he wrote two successful books on ethics, including The Science of Ethics in 1892, which was widely adopted as a standard textbook. This two-volume work, which was first published in 1896, brings together the lectures he gave to various ethical societies, mostly in London. In Volume 2, he discusses the ethical issues surrounding a range of topics, including luxury, heredity, crime and punishment, and duty.

Works of Thomas Hill Green
  • Volume 1, Philosophical Works
  • Thomas Hill Green
  • Edited by R. L. Nettleship
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1885
  • Thomas Hill Green (1836–82) was one of the most influential English thinkers of his time, and he made significant contributions to the development of political liberalism. Much of his career was spent at Balliol College, Oxford: having begun as a student of Jowett, he later acted effectively as his second-in-command at the college. Interested for his whole career in social questions, Green supported the temperance movement, the extension of the franchise, and the admission of women to university education. He became Whyte's professor of moral philosophy at Oxford in 1878, and his lectures had a lasting influence on a generation of students. Much of Volume 1, edited by Green's pupil R. L. Nettleship and published in 1885, consists of Green's work on David Hume (1711–76). In his essay, 'Introductions to Hume's Treatise of Human Nature' (originally published in 1874), Green gives a detailed critique of Hume's metaphysical thought.

Social Rights and Duties
  • Addresses to Ethical Societies
  • Volume 1
  • Leslie Stephen
  • Published online:
    05 September 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1896
  • Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and a writer on philosophy, ethics, and literature, was educated at Eton, King's College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained as a fellow and a tutor for a number of years. Though a sickly child, he later became a keen and successful mountaineer, taking part in first ascents of nine peaks in the Alps. In 1871 he became editor of the Cornhill Magazine. During his eleven-year tenure, he wrote two successful books on ethics, including The Science of Ethics in 1892, which was widely adopted as a standard textbook. This two-volume work, which was first published in 1896, brings together the lectures he gave to various ethical societies, mostly in London. In Volume 1, he considers the role of ethical societies and discusses a range of questions in politics, social equality and morality.

Rights of Man
  • Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution
  • Thomas Paine
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 March 2012
    First published in:
    1791
  • A major actor in the American Revolution, English intellectual Thomas Paine (1737–1809) is remembered especially for his pamphlet Common Sense (1776; also reissued in this series), which advocates America's independence from Great Britain. An immediate best-seller, it sold over 100,000 copies in three months. Paine was a dedicated reformer who also lent his support to the French Revolution. First published in 1791, this book was sparked by the publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), a direct condemnation of the French uprising; and the fourth edition of this remarkable contribution to political philosophy is reissued here. In a passionate rebuttal of Burke's position, Paine argues that revolution is legitimate against a government that fails to protect its people and their essential rights. Extremely influential in its own day, this book develops a critique of authoritarian governments that remains relevant today.

Rights of Man. Part the Second. Combining Principle and Practice
  • Thomas Paine
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 March 2012
    First published in:
    1792
  • A major actor in the American Revolution, English intellectual Thomas Paine (1737–1809) is remembered especially for his pamphlet Common Sense (1776; also reissued in this series), which advocates America's independence from Great Britain. A dedicated radical, Paine went on to lend his support to the French Revolution. In 1791, he published Rights of Man in response to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), a condemnation of the events in France. First published in 1792, this book is a continuation of Rights of Man. While the first volume was a passionate rebuttal of Burke's argument, this book - reissued here in its second edition - develops concrete measures for political reform, proposing novel concepts such as political representation and tax reform to benefit the poor. Widely circulated because of its low price, the book proved immensely influential, and resulted in indictments for seditious libel for Paine and his editor.

History of the Inductive Sciences
  • From the Earliest to the Present Times
  • Volume 1
  • William Whewell
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    09 September 2010
    First published in:
    1837
  • A central figure in Victorian science, William Whewell (1794–1866) held professorships in Mineralogy and Moral Philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, before becoming Master of the college in 1841. His mathematical textbooks, such as A Treatise on Dynamics (1823), were instrumental in bringing French analytical methods into British science. This three-volume history, first published in 1837, is one of Whewell's most famous works. Taking the 'acute, but fruitless, essays of Greek philosophy' as a starting point, it provides a history of the physical sciences that culminates with the mechanics, astronomy, and chemistry of 'modern times'. Volume 1 studies Greek physics and metaphysics, attributing their failure to a method that derived its principles from the common use of language. It surveys the state of the physical sciences in the middle ages, and deals with the rise of 'formal' astronomy - based on observation rather than calculation - as exemplified by Copernicus.

Essays on the Active Powers of Man
  • Thomas Reid
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1788
  • The Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid (1710–1796) first published Essays on Active Powers of Man in 1788 while he was Professor of Philosophy at King's College, Aberdeen. The work contains a set of essays on active power, the will, principles of action, the liberty of moral agents, and morals. Reid was a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and one of the founders of the 'common sense' school of philosophy. In Active Powers Reid gives his fullest exploration of sensus communis as the basis of all philosophical inquiry. He uses common sense realism to argue for the existence of a stable external world, the existence of other minds, and to offer a powerful challenge to versions of the Theory of Ideas advocated by Hume (1711–1776) and Locke (1632–1704). This is a key work of the Scottish Enlightenment that made important contributions to fundamental debates about the basis of philosophical inquiry.

Page 5 of 6