Religion & Philosophy

Hardcover. London, Luzak and Company, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark green cloth with gilt lettering on spine. 252 pages with b&w plates plus index. Clean copy, no dust jacket.

Softcover. Lanham, University Press of America, 1st, 1983, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 311 pages. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR ON FRONT ENDPAPER. Light foxing to edges and covers. Clean, unmarked copy.

Hardcover. Ontario CA, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 201 pages. Clean, bright copy. "Parker has produced a clear and well-researched study of an aspect of Locke's thought that theologians may have tended to miss because it is to do with politics, and that political theorists may have tended to overlook because it involves the Bible and theology. For this he is to be congratulated. Theologians today may also learn from the debate between Filmer and Locke the profoundly unsatisfactory character of attempts to resolve contemporary issues, whether in politics, society, or religion, by imaginative and inventive applications of stray texts. In this respect what is past gives a warning to the present. How will current debates citing biblical texts (for example, in debates about the treatment of homosexuals, or about the consecration of women, or about divine intervention and design in creation) be seen in centuries hence? Those who, with Locke, confidently condemn the speck distorting Filmer's religio-political view, must examine whether, what they see is free from distortion by the `learned Gibberish' of inherited prejudices and convictions. It is to Parker's credit that this useful contribution to the history of thought also raises controversial contemporary challenges.''

Hardcover. Oxford UK/NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2000, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 326 pages. Volume 3 of Oxford Studies in the History of Philosophy Series. Light pencil marking to about 20 pages.

Hardcover. Oxford UK, Clarendon Press, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover set, complete in two volumes, both with bright dust jackets. Locke on Money presents for the first time the entire body of the philosopher's writings on this important subject (other than Two Treatises of Government). Accurate texts, together with an apparatus listing variant readings and significant manuscript changes, record the evolution of Locke's ideas from the original 1668-74 paper on interest to the three pamphlets on interest and coinage published in the 1690s. The introduction by Patrick Hyde Kelly establishes the wider context of Locke's writings in terms of contemporary debates on these subjects, the economic conditions of the time, and the circumstances of writing and publication. It shows, notably, that Locke's supposed responsibility for the 1696 recoinage is a myth. The account of what Locke derived from Mercantilist writings and of how he reformulated these in accordance with his philosophy illuminates his contribution to the evolution of economics, and will aid reappraisal of Two Treatises. The picture that emerges confirms Locke's status as major economic thinker, contrary to the prevalent view of recent decades. There are two volumes in the edition. The first contains the introductory matter, and the texts of the Early Writings on Interest, 1688-74, and Some Considerations. The second comprises Short Observations, Further Considerations, and the Appendices, Bibliography, and Index. 664 total pages. Name on front fly leaf in Vol. 1, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Paris, Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 268 pages, FRENCH TEXT. Mild crease to cover.

Softcover. Kessinger Publishing, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 457 pages. A photocopied facsimile reprint of the 1685 volume. FRENCH TEXT. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Arno Press, reprint, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark green cloth with gilt lettering. A facsimile reprint of the London 1717 edition. 405 pages plus publisher's ads. Light pencil notes on front endpapers with owner's name in ink. Otherwise clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Oxford UK, Oxford University Press , 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Two hardcovers in bright dust jackets, 1008 pages total. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is one of the most important figures in the history of European thought. Although interest in his life and work has grown enormously in recent years, this is the first complete edition of his correspondence. The texts of the letters are supplemented with explanatory notes and full biographical and bibliographical information. Although best known for his political theory, he also wrote about theology, metaphysics, physics, optics, mathematics, psychology and literary criticism. All of these interests are reflected in his correspondence. Some small groups of his letters have been printed in the past (often in inaccurate transcriptions), but this edition is the first complete collection of his correspondence, nearly half of which has never been printed before. All the letters have been transcribed from the original sources, and all materials in Latin, French and Italian are printed together in modern English. The letters are fully annotated, and there are long biographical entries on all of his correspondents, based on extensive original research. Noel Malcolm is the author of "De Dominis (1560-1624): Venetian, Anglican, Ecumenist and Relapsed Heretic". This second of two volumes contains the letters of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), supplemented with explanatory notes, and full biographical and bibliographical information. This publication sheds new light on the intellectual life of a major European thinker. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise a bright, clean set. DUE TO WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. UK, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. God in the Age of Science? is a critical examination of strategies for the philosophical defence of religious belief. The main options may be presented as the end nodes of a decision tree for religious believers. The faithful can interpret a creedal statement (e.g. "God exists") either as a truth claim, or otherwise. If it is a truth claim, they can either be warranted to endorse it without evidence, or not. Finally, if evidence is needed, should its evidential support be assessed by the same logical criteria that we use in evaluating evidence in science, or not? Each of these options has been defended by prominent analytic philosophers of religion. In part I Herman Philipse assesses these options and argues that the most promising for believers who want to be justified in accepting their creed in our scientific age is the Bayesian cumulative case strategy developed by Richard Swinburne. Parts II and III are devoted to an in-depth analysis of this case for theism. Using a "strategy of subsidiary arguments," Philipse concludes (1) that theism cannot be stated meaningfully; (2) that if theism were meaningful, it would have no predictive power concerning existing evidence, so that Bayesian arguments cannot get started; and (3) that if the Bayesian cumulative case strategy did work, one should conclude that atheism is more probable than theism. Philipse provides a careful, rigorous, and original critique of theism in the world today. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Fordham University Press, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 267 pages. The title of this book translates one of the many ways in which Lucretius names the basic matter from which the world is made in De rerum natura. In Lucretius, and in the strain of thought followed in this study, matter is always in motion, always differing from itself and yet always also made of the same stuff. From the pious Lucy Hutchinson's all but complete translation of the Roman epic poem to Margaret Cavendish's repudiation of atomism (but not of its fundamental problematic of sameness and difference), a central concern of this book is how a thoroughgoing materialism can be read alongside other strains in the thought of the early modern period, particularly Christianity. Although English literature is the book's main concern, it first contemplates relations between Lucretian matter and Pauline flesh by way of Tintoretto's painting The Conversion of St. Paul. Theoretical issues raised in the work of Agamben and Badiou, among others, lead to a chapter that takes up the role that Lucretius has played in theory, from Bergson and Marx to Foucault and Deleuze. Name on front fly leaf along with pencil notations.

Hardcover. UK, Clarendon Press, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 314 pages. Presents a close discussion of each of the several topics arising in the chapter on the Paralogisms in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: the mind's immateriality, simplicity, substantiality, relation to embodiment and the external world, identity, immortality, freedom, and ideality.

Hardcover. Bristol UK, Thoemmes Press, reprint, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 268 pages. A facsimile reprint of the 1690 edition. One of 9 volumes in More's collected works. Name on front fly leaf otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Softcover. UK, Oxford University Press, reprint, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 331 pages. This is a revised and expanded edition of a seminal work in the logic and philosophy of time, originally published in 1968. Arthur N. Prior (1914-1969) was the founding father of temporal logic, and his book offers an excellent introduction to the fundamental questions in the field. Several important papers have been added to the original selection, as well as a comprehensive bibliography of Prior's work and an illuminating interview with his widow, Mary Prior. In addition, the Polish logic which made Prior's writings difficult for many readers has been replaced by standard logical notation. This new edition will secure the classic status of the book. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, reprint, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 340 pages. Knowledge and its Limits presents a systematic new conception of knowledge as a kind of mental stage sensitive to the knower's environment. It makes a major contribution to the debate between externalist and internalist philosophies of mind, and breaks radically with the epistemological tradition of analyzing knowledge in terms of true belief. The theory casts new light on such philosophical problems as scepticism, evidence, probability and assertion, realism and anti-realism, and the limits of what can be known. The arguments are illustrated by rigorous models based on epistemic logic and probability theory. The result is a new way of doing epistemology and a notable contribution to the philosophy of mind. Name, light pencil notations on front fly leaf.

Hardcover. UK, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 133 pages. This book aims to discuss probability and David Hume's inductive scepticism. For the sceptical view which he took of inductive inference, Hume only ever gave one argument. That argument is the sole subject-matter of this book. The book is divided into three parts. Part one presents some remarks on probability. Part two identifies Hume's argument for inductive scepticism. Finally, the third part evaluates Hume's argument for inductive scepticism. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Indianapolis, Liberty Fund, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 211 pages. Edited and with an Introduction by Blair Worden. This edition brings back into print, after two and a half centuries, the pioneering work of English republicanism, Marchamont Nedham's The Excellencie of a Free-State, which was written in the wake of the execution of King Charles I. First published in 1656, and compiled from previously written editorials in the parliamentarian newsbook Mercurius Politicus, The Excellencie of a Free-State addressed a dilemma in English politics, namely, what kind of government should the Commonwealth adopt? Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Oxford UK, Clarendon Press, Revised Ed., 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 312 pages. This book investigates what it means, and whether it is coherent, to say that there is a God. The author concludes that, despite philosophical objections, the claims which religious believers make about God are generally coherent; and that although some important claims are coherent only if the words by which they are expressed are being used in stretched or analogical senses, this is in fact the way in which theologians have usually claimed they are being used. This revised edition includes various minor corrections and clarifications. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Chicago, Open Court, 1st, 1921, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering on front cover and spine, 245 pages. Top edge gilt. Pencil notations to about 20 pages.

Softcover. Amsterdam, North - Holland Publishing, 2nd pr., 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Thin card covers in a lightly sunned dust jacket, 122 pages. Remarkable work in which the author aimed to collect some of the data available in the state of science of Bochenski's times and to arrange them in a kind of outline, which showed forth some of our indebtedness to Greek Logicians, and allowed the reader to see how their results were reached.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, The MIT Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 294 pages. An examination of the powerful social and psychological factors that hold the belief in moral responsibility firmly in place. The philosophical commitment to moral responsibility seems unshakable. But, argues Bruce Waller, the philosophical belief in moral responsibility is much stronger than the philosophical arguments in favor of it. Philosophers have tried to make sense of moral responsibility for centuries, with mixed results. Most contemporary philosophers insist that even conclusive proof of determinism would not and should not result in doubts about moral responsibility. Many embrace compatibilist views, and propose an amazing variety of competing compatibilist arguments for saving moral responsibility. In this provocative book, Waller examines the stubborn philosophical belief in moral responsibility, surveying the philosophical arguments for it but focusing on the system that supports these arguments: powerful social and psychological factors that hold the belief in moral responsibility firmly in place. Clean copy.

Softcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st pbk., 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 415 pages. This is the first ever English rendition of the classic statement of divine right absolutism in French, published in 1707 when the power and glory of the French ancien regime was at its zenith. Patrick Riley has provided full supporting materials including a chronology, guide to further reading and brief notes on persons mentioned, in addition to a lucid introduction placing Bossuet's bibliocentric politics in their historical and intellectual context. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Delmar NY, Scholars Facsimiles and Reprints, reprint, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 597 pages. A facsimile reproduction of the 1605 London edition. Du Bartas was extremely popular in early modern England, and was still being read widely in the later seventeenth century even as his reputation in France began to decline. His world-famous La Sepmaine, ou creation du monde (1578), an epic poem on the creation of the world, divided into seven parts, for each of the seven days of creation, was first translated into English in 1598 and published in 1605 and was reprinted six times up until 1641. "No other poem (besides those in the Bible itself) was read as widely as the Semaines were across early modern English and Scottish society. Based on references to Sylvester in print, Snyder believed that 'Clearly everyone in pre-Restoration England who had received a literary education read the 'Weekes' ande almost all.... Admired it'. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Oxford UK, Clarendon Press, 1st, 1935, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine, pages 349-708. A clean, tight copy. Volume 2 only of a two volume set.

Hardcover. London, Routledge/Thoemmes Press, reprint, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 85 plus 67 pages. Two titles in one volume. Reprints of 1838 and 1891 editions. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Bristol UK, Thoemmes Press, reprint, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, red cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 196 pages plus a 98 page addition: A Dissertation Upon the Argument a Priori For Proving the Existence of a First Cause. A facsimile reprint of the 1734 Edition. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, The Free Press, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 615 pages. Previous owners name on front endpaper. Dust jacket with spine fading, standard wear. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Viking, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A dark comedy recreates the biblical books of Genesis and Exodus from Cain's point of view, depicting a capricious God who resents Eve's flirting with an angel, an envious and sullen Adam, and Abel, Cain's irreconcilable opposite. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Thoemmes Press, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 56 pages. A facsimile reprint of a pamphlet originally published in 1735 in London. Introduction by John Yolton. Although not a particularly well-known figure in the history of philosophy, the importance of Jackson's work as representative of some of the major controversies in the first half of the 18th century should not be overlooked. With the dualism of matter and spirit firmly established, many thinkers struggled for an explanation of mind/body interaction. In "A Dissertation on Matter and Spirit" Jackson attacks the argument that God is the only genuine cause of the influence of matter on mind, and is significantly swayed by Locke's belief in thinking matter. However, as might be expected of a clergyman, he maintains that matter and spirit are essentially different, but continually qualifies this as based only on conjecture. Clearly examining the key elements involved, this pamphlet is a significant contribution to the materialism-immaterialism debate. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, New York University Press, 2nd pr., 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, orange cloth covers, gilt lettering on spine, 159 pages. While Morgan's literary portfolio shows remarkable diversity, it is studded with works on Puritanism. 'Visible Saints' further solidifies his reputation as a leading authority on this subject. An expanded version of his Anson G. Phelps Lectures of 1962 (presented at New York University), this slender volume focuses on the central issue of church membership. Morgan posits and develops a revisionary main thesis: the practice of basing membership upon a declaration of experiencing saving grace, or 'conversion,' was first put into effect not in England, Holland, or Plymouth, as is commonly related, but in Massachusetts Bay Colony by non-separating Puritans. Characterized by stylistic grace and exegetic finesse, 'Visible Saints' is another scholarly milestone in the 'Millerian Age' of Puritan historiography. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf , 1st, 1923, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth stamped in gilt. The title on front is somewhat faded, the spine gilt lettering is completely faded. This is the first printing with 1923 on title page and "Published September 1923" on copyright page, no other printings listed. Laid in a flyer listing Knopf's titles for the fall of 1923 including The Prophet under Poetry & Drama ($2.00). Black topstain. Black-and-white frontispiece with 11 black-and-white plates reproduced from original drawings by Gibran (Lebanese-born mystic poet, 1883-1931. 108 pages. The previous owner's ink name on front fly leaf along with a hand lettered label on the wicked practice of not returning borrowed books. Otherwise clean. Scarce first edition of Kahlil Gibran's masterpiece of verse - translated into over 60 languages, extensively quoted, and never out of print, THE PROPHET is one of the most popular books ever published.

Hardcover. POONA, Oriental Book Agency, 1st, 1939, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 567 pages. Hardcover. Boards bound at spine with orange quartercloth, has fading and foxing to spine from age. Gray cardboard cover boards (some agewear). Pages and edges have some tanning, but otherwise unmarked. Previous owner's name on front flyleaf. This work is a product of seven manuscripts. It begins with the English tranlation of lectures on Nyayasutras by Gautama. The author has also used his notes from Bodhasiddhi.

Hardcover. Boston, William White & Co, 3rd, 1862, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 344 pages. Black boards with embossed pictorial border, gilt titles to spine. Previous owner's signature to front endpaper, light rubbing to covers, top third of outside of front hinge cracked, mild edgewear, pages crisp and unmarked; overall, a very neat, tight copy.

Hardcover. Windsor VT, Richard and Tracy, 1st US, 1833, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, polished brown calf, 213 pages. Eleven page preliminary essay by the American editors, followed by 9 sermons, title label on spine. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Washington DC, The Catholic University of America Press, 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 178 pages, original printed wraps. VG, light wear to edges of covers. INSCRIBED BY 0'MALLEY on front fly leaf.

Hardcover. NY, William Lewer, 1st, 1838, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, bound in 3/4 leather with marbled boards, black calf spine labels with gilt lettering, 396 pages, American Edition noted on title page; its London parent, "The Metropolitan: A monthly journal of literature, science, and the fine arts" was a London monthly journal established by Thomas Campbell in 1831 and continued, under various editors, until 1850. Clean bright copy.

Hardcover. UK, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 277 pages. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries represent a period of remarkable intellectual vitality in British philosophy, as figures such as Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Smith attempted to explain the origins and sustaining mechanisms of civil society. Their insights continue to inform how political and moral theorists think about the world in which we live. From Moral Theology to Moral Philosophy reconstructs a debate which preoccupied contemporaries but which seems arcane to us today. It concerned the relationship between reason and revelation as the two sources of mankind's knowledge, particularly in the ethical realm: to what extent, they asked, could reason alone discover the content and obligatory character of morality? This was held to be a historical, rather than a merely theoretical question: had the philosophers of pre-Christian antiquity, ignorant of Christ, been able satisfactorily to explain the moral universe? What role had natural theology played in their ethical theories - and was it consistent with the teachings delivered by revelation? Much recent scholarship has drawn attention to the early-modern interest in two late Hellenistic philosophical traditions - Stoicism and Epicureanism. Yet in the English context, three figures above all - John Locke, Conyers Middleton, and David Hume - quite deliberately and explicitly identified their approaches with Cicero as the representative of an alternative philosophical tradition, critical of both the Stoic and the Epicurean: academic scepticism. All argued that Cicero provided a means of addressing what they considered to be the most pressing question facing contemporary philosophy: the relationship between moral philosophy and moral theology. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, England, Cambirdge at the University Press, 1st Edition, 1917, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 338 pages. Hardcover. Green cloth cover boards, gilt title on spine and front cover board, gilt faded on cover, some agewear. Some light pencil within. Previous owner's name on front flyleaf. Some tanning to pages and edges.

Softcover. Burlington VY, Ashgate Publishing , 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 241 pages.The theology of Irenaeus, and the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching in particular, is pivotal in showing the way in which the fathers of the church interpreted scripture and distilled doctrine. The Demonstration is an important hinge showing how the doctrine of the fourth century with its definitive councils and definitions of faith, opens out from the new testament apostolic and evangelical witness. Presenting the full translation of the Demonstration of Irenaeus by Dean Armitage Robinson, this book offers a detailed theological commentary by Canon Iain MacKenzie on this foundational doctrinal text. MacKenzie sets out the main theological themes throughout Irenaeus' work, and explores his method of systematic theology, Athanasius's dependence on Irenaeus, and Irenaeus' influence on doctrine in the fourth century - particularly the works of Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. Highlighting the importance of this second century theologian for theology today, this commentary and theological interpretation offers an incentive to study Irenaeus in the wider development of Christian doctrine as a cardinal figure in the appreciation of systematic theology. Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean.

Softcover. Paris, Les Impressions Nouvelles, 1st thus, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 540 pages. FRENCH TEXT. Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Oxford UK, Clarendon Press, reprint, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 400 pages. Clean, bright copy. This volume makes available for the first time critical editions of John Locke's A Vindication and A Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity, in which Locke defends his interpretation of the New Testament and of the Christian Religion against charges of heterodoxy. These works contribute greatly to our understanding of Locke's Christian commitments, which it is now recognized played an important role in shaping his philosophical opinions; they also demonstrate his sophistication as a biblical scholar, and the breadth of his theological learning. The texts are accompanied by a historical introduction explaining the origin of the works and setting them in context. In addition to a textual introduction and critical apparatus, editorial notes help to clarify the text. The volume also includes a French translation and abridgment by Pierre Coste, a Huguenot scholar, who was patronized by Locke and worked on his translations while residing in Locke's household. This definitive edition is an important contribution to an understanding of the development of modern enlightened Christian attitudes.

Hardcover. Oxford UK, Oxford University Press, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 274 pages. Both science and philosophy are interested in questions of ontology - questions about what exists and what these things are like. Science and philosophy, however, seem like very different ways of investigating the world, so how should one proceed? Some defer to the sciences, conceived as something apart from philosophy, and others to metaphysics, conceived as something apart from science, for certain kinds of answers. This book contends that these sorts of deference are misconceived. A compelling account of ontology must appreciate the ways in which the sciences incorporate metaphysical assumptions and arguments. At the same time, it must pay careful attention to how observation, experience, and the empirical dimensions of science are related to what may be viewed as defensible philosophical theorizing about ontology. The promise of an effectively naturalized metaphysics is to encourage beliefs that are formed in ways that do justice to scientific theorizing, modeling, and experimentation. But even armed with such a view, there is no one, uniquely rational way to draw lines between domains of ontology that are suitable for belief, and ones in which it would be better to suspend belief instead. In crucial respects, ontology is in the eye of the beholder: it is informed by underlying commitments with implications for the limits of inquiry, which inevitably vary across rational inquirers. As result, the proper scope of ontology is subject to a striking form of voluntary choice, yielding a new and transformative conception of scientific ontology. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Chicago, University Of Chicago Press, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 334 pages. The Spirit of Modern Republicanism sets forth a radical reinterpretation of the foundations on which the American regime was constructed. Thomas L. Pangle argues that the Founders had a dramatically new vision of civic virtue, religious faith, and intellectual life, rooted in an unprecedented commitment to private and economic liberties. It is in the thought of John Locke that Pangle finds the fullest elaboration of the principles supporting the Founders' moral vision. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth stamped in black. 164 pages. The Career of Toleration considers the Locke-Proast controversy from the standpoint of political theory, examining Locke's and Proast's texts and tracing their relationship to later discussions of toleration. Vernon reconstructs the grounds of the dispute, drawing attention to the long-term importance of the arguments and evaluating their relative strength. He then examines issues of toleration in later contexts, specifically James Fitzjames Stephen's critique of John Stuart Mill, the perfectionist alternative to contractualist liberalism, and the view that the traditional attachment to toleration must, by the force of its own arguments, move from liberalism to a defence of a much stronger form of democracy. Arguing that Locke's and Proast's exchange marks a turning point in the intellectual history that has helped to structure the terms of modern political debate, Vernon presents a solid case for thinking that the exchange between Locke and Proast is as important for the twentieth century as it was for the seventeenth. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. US, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 321 pages. Faint smoke (tobacco) smell. Light shelf-wear to dust jacket and light soil to fore edge, else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 765 pages. The second and final volume of the most authoritative English-language edition of Spinoza's writings. The Collected Works of Spinoza provides, for the first time in English, a truly satisfactory edition of all of Spinoza's writings, with accurate and readable translations, based on the best critical editions of the original-language texts, done by a scholar who has published extensively on the philosopher's work. The centerpiece of this second volume is Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise, a landmark work in the history of biblical scholarship, the first argument for democracy by a major philosopher, and a forceful defense of freedom of thought and expression. This work is accompanied by Spinoza's later correspondence, much of which responds to criticism of the Theological-Political Treatise. The volume also includes his last work, the unfinished Political Treatise, which builds on the foundations of the Theological-Political Treatise to offer plans for the organization of nontyrannical monarchies and aristocracies. Previous owner's name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 206 pages. Marian David defends the correspondence theory of truth against the disquotational theory of truth, its current major rival. The correspondence theory asserts that truth is a philosophically rich and profound notion in need of serious explanation. Disquotationalists offer a radically deflationary account inspired by Tarski and propagated by Quine and others. They reject the correspondence theory, insist truth is anemic, and advance an "anti-theory" of truth that is essentially a collection of platitudes: "Snow is white" is true if and only if snow is white; "Grass is green" is true if and only if grass is green. According to disquotationalists the only profound insight about truth is that it lacks profundity. David contrasts the correspondence theory with disquotationalism and then develops the latter position in rich detail--more than has been available in previous literature--to show its faults. He demonstrates that disquotationalism is not a tenable theory of truth, as it has too many absurd consequences.

Hardcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket with mild fading to spine edge, short closed tear, 227 pages. William Walker's analysis of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding offers a challenging and provocative assessment of Locke's importance as a thinker, bridging the gap between philosophical and literary-critical discussion of his work. He is revealed as a crucial figure for emerging modernity, less the familiar empiricist innovator and more a proto-Nietzschean thinker. Walker's reading of Locke is finely attentive to the text and resourceful in placing the Essay in its broadest philosophical and historical context. Light pencil notations on front fly leaf.