Continuum Philosophy News

New titles in Ethics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was delighted to receive advance copies last week of the new Continuum Companion to Ethics, edited by Christian Miller (Wake Forest University). The Companion offers the definitive guide to a key area of contemporary philosophy, covering all the fundamental questions asked by meta-ethics and normative ethical theory. Fourteen specially commissioned essays from an international team of experts reveal where important work continues to be done in the field and, most valuably, the exciting new directions the field is taking. The Companion explores issues pertaining to moral methodology, moral realism, ethical expressivism, constructivism and the error theory, morality and practical reason, moral psychology, morality and religion, consequentialism, Kantian ethics, virtue ethics, feminist ethics, moral particularism, experimental ethics, and biology, evolution, and ethics.

Featuring a series of indispensable research tools, including important technical terms in ethics, a historical chronology, an extensive overview of contemporary meta-ethics and normative ethical theory, a detailed list of internet resources for research in ethics, and a thorough list of recommended works for further study, this is the essential reference tool for anyone working in contemporary philosophical ethics.

And on a related note you might also be interested in one of the latest volumes in our successful Think Now series: The Ethics of Trade and Aid by Christopher D. Wraight. Wraight offers a philosophical examination of trade and aid and demonstrates how political philosophy provides us with insights often passed over in modern development jargon. Christopher Wraight scrutinises the trade and aid industry through the lens of philosophy and ultimately shows that a compassionate, rational and humane engagement with the global economy does hold the promise of a better, more equal life.

How to Be an Existentialist - now available in paperback!

"The book evangelises eloquently for a slightly revised version of Sartrean existentialism, nicely explaining much-worried-about notions such as "authenticity" and "bad faith". Thus armed, one may face down absurdity and the inevitability of death in all those locations that irresistibly evoke them, such as airports, dentists' waiting rooms, gyms, dog kennels, and hot-air balloons." The Guardian

How to Be an Existentialist, one of our bestselling titles of the last few years, is now available in paperback for the first time. Philosopher and writer Gary Cox presents a genuine self-help book offering clear advice on how to live according to the principles of existentialism formulated by Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus and the other great existentialist philosophers.

An attack on contemporary excuse culture, the book urges us to face the hard existential truths of the human condition. It uncompromisingly counsels us to become tougher and more dignified, less grumbling and irresponsible, to stop chasing rainbows and making excuses and instead to get a grip and get real.
By revealing that we are all inescapably free and responsible – ‘condemned to be free’, as Sartre says - the book aims to empower the reader with a sharp sense that we are each the master of our own destiny. Cox makes fun of the reputation existentialism has for being gloomy and pessimistic, exposing it for what it really is - an honest, uplifting and potentially life changing philosophy!

Also look out for Gary's new book, The Existentialist's Guide to Death, the Universe and Nothingness, which publishes in November.

Love of a God of Love

 Available now in the US and coming to the UK in November, Love of a God of Love: Towards a Transformation of the Philosophy of Religion by Hugo Strandberg (Lecturer, Department of Philosophy at Åbo Akademi University, Finland) develops a new understanding of religious belief centered on the concept of love. In his compelling and original argument, Strandberg moves beyond epistemological claims to recast faith as a relation and an existential endeavor primarily involving oneself by developing an idea of love that constitutes both the "what" and the "how" of belief. To love a God of love, he argues, is to allow love to characterize both the content and the action of one's belief.

"Strandberg is an original and serious thinker. His book presents an important alternative in the ongoing reflection upon what belief is and even more so, how to believe. I recommend this book to all those who appreciate perceptive and engaging thinking."
-- Catharina Stenqvist (Professor of philosophy of Religion, Lund University, Sweden)

"If, as Strandberg argues, the task of philosophy is to bring its audience into a new relationship with its subject matter—a relation of understanding, in which moral and religious demands cannot be evaded—it is a mark of his success that his study has the effect of rendering its subject not merely intelligible but compelling. Love of a God of Love is a major achievement of philosophical thinking."
-- Richard Amesbury (Associate Professor of Ethics, Claremont School of Theology, USA)

New monographs on the philosophy of religion

We are excited to announce the publication of two new monographs in our series Continuum Studies in Philosophy of Religion!

God's Final Victory: A Comparative Philosophical Case for Universalism


In God's Final Victory, authors John Kronen (Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, USA) and Eric Reitan (Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University, USA) address one of Christianity's oldest controversies, reasoning that the doctrine of universal salvation is ultimately more philosophically defensible than the doctrine of hell. Kronen and Reitan's arguments are both novel and compelling, and their book is a major achievement that will shape theological discussions of universalism for years to come.

"No philosopher or theologian who in the future addresses the issue of universalism will be able to ignore the arguments of this book, and even many parishioners in the pew, however impatient they may be with finely drawn philosophical distinctions, will benefit greatly from it."
-- Thomas Talbott (Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Willamette University, USA)

"This is the state of the art of argument in support of universalism, and should be taken into account in any discussion of it."
-- Keith E. Yandell (Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

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The Rainbow of Experiences, Critical Trust, and God: A Defense of Holistic Empiricism

 
The Rainbow of Experiences, Critical Trust, and God argues against traditional empiricist epistemologies to make the case for the value and validity of religious experience. Author Kai-man Kwan (Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China) both defends and recasts Richard Swinburne's Principle of Credulity as the Principle of Critical Trust in order to highlight the need for balancing trust and criticism and suggest a new approach to both religious experience and epistemology in general.

"The argument to God ‘from religious experience’ is often presented as an argument from a very peculiar type of experience which religious people have, quite unlike our other experiences. This book is unique in describing so comprehensively and within one volume the data of many different kinds of related human experience, data often hard to describe and so easy to neglect. It thus locates the ‘argument from religious experience’ within a rich and deep background, which brings it to life and makes it much more plausible. I am very happy to commend this wide-ranging book, to what I hope will be a wide-ranging public."
-- from the foreword by Richard Swinburne, FBA (Emeritus Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion, University of Oxford, UK)

New Continuum Companions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a relatively quiet summer, our autumn publishing programme is kicking off with not one, but two new titles in our Continuum Companions series.

The Continuum Companion to Pragmatism, edited by Sami Pihlstrom, is a comprehensive one-volume reference guide to the latest developments in pragmatism, with chapters by leading scholars writing on a wide variety of topics. The Companion explores issues pertaining to aesthetics, economics, education, ethics, history, law, metaphysics, politics, race, religion, science and technology, language, and social theory. Featuring a series of indispensable research tools, including an A to Z of key terms and concepts, a chronology, a detailed list of resources and a fully annotated bibliography, this is the essential reference tool for anyone working in contemporary pragmatism or modern American philosophy more generally.

The Continuum Companion to Existentialism is jointly edited by Felicity Joseph, Jack Reynolds and Ashley Woodward and brings together a team of leading international scholars to present a one-volume reference guide to the latest research and future directions in existentialism. Specially commissioned essays explore existentialism’s relationship to philosophical method; ontology; politics; psychoanalysis; ethics; religion; literature; emotion; feminism and sexuality; cognitive science; authenticity and the self; its significance in Latin American culture; and its contribution to the development of Poststructuralism. In addition, five short chapters summarise the status of canonical figures Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and de Beauvoir, delineating the historical approach to their work, while pointing to new directions such research is now taking. As with other volumes in the series, it also includes a series of indispensable research tools.

Both volumes are currently available at an introductory discounted price - order copies for your library today!

New Philosophies of Film

 I am delighted to announce the publication of a new book that critically explores analytic and Continental philosophies of film. New Philosophies of Film by Robert Sinnerbrink (Macquarie University, Australia) puts film-philosophy into practice with detailed discussions of three filmmakers: David Lynch, Lars von Trier, and Terrence Malick.

The relationship between film and philosophy has become a topic of intense intellectual interest. But how should we understand this relationship? Can philosophy renew our understanding of film? Can film challenge or even transform how we understand philosophy? New Philosophies of Film explores these questions in relation to both analytic and Continental philosophies of film, arguing that the best way to overcome their mutual antagonism is by constructing a more pluralist film-philosophy grounded in detailed engagement with particular films. Sinnerbrink not only provides lucid critical analyses of the exciting developments and contentious debates in the new philosophies of film, but also showcases how a pluralist film-philosophy works in the case of Lynch, von Trier, and Malick, three challenging contemporary filmmakers. New Philosophies of Film thus puts interdisciplinary film -philosophy into practice, and should be of great interest to students and researchers working across the disciplines of philosophy, film studies, and cultural studies.