Subject collection: Philosophy (254 titles, 1969–2015)

The Ṛgveda is the oldest of the books that comprise the scriptures of Hinduism. While its age cannot be accurately determined, it can be said with reasonable certainty that it must have existed in its present form at least as early as 1000 BC. It consists of 1,028 hymns, arranged, according to the form in which the Ṛgveda has been transmitted, in ten divisions, called maṇḍalas. This volume consists of a selection of hymns, translated into English and annotated, as well as short introductions to the Ṛgveda as a whole and the different themes around which the selected hymns are grouped, a bibliography, and an index.

Most of the essays collected in this volume deal with theoretical issues that dominate the international debate on Postmodernism, issues such as the shifting nature of the concept, the problem of periodization and the problem of historicity. Other essays offer readings of Postmodernist texts and relate practical criticism to a theoretical framework. Hans Bertens (Utrecht) sketches the historical development of the concept Postmodernism in American criticism, distinguishing between the various definitions that have been proposed over the last twenty-five years, in an attempt to bring some order to the field and to facilitate future discussion. Brian McHale (Tel Aviv) and Douwe Fokkema (Utrecht) offer models for the description of Postmodernist texts. Richard Todd (Amsterdam) argues convincingly that Postmodernism is much more of a presence in contemporary British fiction than has so far been assumed, and Herta Schmid (Munich) presents a similar argument with respect to Russian avant-garde theater. Elrud Ibsch (Amsterdam) presents a contrastive analysis of Thomas Bernhard and Robert Musil; Ulla Musarra (Nijmegen) writes on Italo Calvino. The relation between Existentialism and Postmodernism is examined by Gerhard Hoffman (Würzburg); Theo D'haen (Utrecht) finds important parallels between Postmodernism in literature and in the visual arts; Matei Calinescu (Bloomington, Ind.) relates literary Postmodernism to a far more general cultural shift, rejecting, however, Foucault's notion of an epistemic break and arguing for both continuity and discontinuity. Finally, Helmut Lethen (Utrecht) and Susan Suleiman (Harvard) sharply question the concept of Postmodernism. Suleiman argues that the supposed Postmodernist reaction against Modernism may well be a critical myth or, if it isn't, a reaction limited to the American literary situation.

What is language, and how has it been conceived since Frege? How did the development of thought about language lead to a renewed interest in rhetoric in the twentieth century and ultimately to the ‘problematological synthesis’? These are the main questions treated in this book. A constant intertwining of historical and topical viewpoints characterizes the author’s approach.

La sémiotique plastique refuse la confusion du visible et du dicible. Tout ce qui fait sens peut être soumis à l’analyse: la saturation d’un rouge, le parallélisme ou le croisement de deux lignes ou encore le rappel d’un même agencement de formes et de volumes dan un espace bâti. Les sept études concrètes ici rassemblées portent sur des œuvres aussi différentes qu’une photographie d’Edouard Boubat, une bande dessinée de Benjamin Rabier, deux publicités (‘News’, ‘Urgo’), un tableau de Kandinsky, une maison conçue par l’architecte Georges Baines, les essais critiques et les dessins de Roland Barthes. Un phénomène sémiotique commun les parcourt, qui justifie l’unité de leur approche: c’est le couplage de catégories du signifiant visuel – opposant les couleurs, les formes ou les valeurs – avec certaines catégories conceptuelles, telles que nature/culture, identité/altérité, vie/mort, etc. La compréhesion de ce principe porteur de signification conduit au rapprochement des problématiques esthétique, anthropologique et sémiotique de l’image et de l’œuvre d’art. Elle implique le rejet de tout cloisonnement et de toute hiérarchie a priori des arts et des langages.

The Charmides is among Plato's most intriguing and perplexing dialogues. The range of subjects touched or treated is extremely wide: matters logical, epistemological, moral, ethical, political, and religious. In many cases, these are discussed in a highly inconclusive and aporetic way, especially when it comes to the subject of knowledge. Finally, the dialogue is also difficult on almost every level of its expression; mock-reasonings, misunderstandings, ironies, paradoxes, and perplexities abound. As a result, the run of its many arguments, both on the short and the long range, and its overall structure are not easy to discern. If a text of such a character is to be made completely accessible, a full-scale commentary is required; it is much to be regretted, therefore, that there is no commentary in which the difficulties of the Greek, the argument, and the place of the philosophical problems in the development of Plato's thought are comprehensively and coherently explained. This monograph does not aspire to that status, but makes an essential contribution towards achieving that aim (in addition to the many other works in the field, Lamb's scrupulous translation of 1927 and Bloch's penetrating study of 1973 in particular) by presenting a detailed examination of forty-two passages of which the interpretation is disputed; many more minor problems are dealt with along the way. In all matters of interpretation, special attention has been paid to defining the exact place of the passage within the run of the, often intricate, argument. The result of this attention can also be observed in an analytical 'Summary of the contents of the Charmides'.

The two monumental volumes making up this collection of essays hold the names of the world’s most renowned and respected scholars in the field of semiotics, and does more than full justice to the extraordinary career of Algirdas Julien Greimas. Before this mer á boire of some seventy five essays kicks off, the editors present a state-of-the art introduction, which is followed by a unique bio-bibliography of A.J. Greimas that trails the career of the master writer in unparalleled fashion through the years.

The aim of the present bibliography is to provide the student of metaphor with an up-to-date and comprehensive (albeit not exhaustive) overview of recent publications dealing with various aspects of metaphor in a variety of disciplines. Where the emphasis is primarily on specific works “about” metaphor, mainly in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology, the list has been supplemented with references to studies where metaphor is explicitly recognized as an instrument of research or analysis (e.g., in literature, or in the elaboration of scientific and religious models) or where its use is illustrated.

Wilhelm von Humboldt’s writings on language are a mixture of philosophical theorizing about mind and language on the one hand, and on the other hand, specialized studies of the most detailed sort of both the classical languages and languages which only in Humboldt’s day were becoming known to European scholars, such as Sanskrit, Chinese, and native north and south American languages. This book endeavors to show that Humboldt’s work on language is a coherent system of thought; to recapture and expose the systematic structure of assumption, hypothesis, argument and conclusion; and to assign many of the specific themes in his writing to a place within this structure.

This volume contains a fragment from Aristotle’s Peri Hermeneias [16a1–17a7], with a translation into English and a commentary. This fragment is crucial to the understanding of Aristotle’s thinking about language. It is followed by (translations of) commentaries on Aristotle’s text by scholars between 500 and 1750, showing how his text was perceived over time. The commentaries are by Ammonius, Boethius, Abelaerd, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Acquinas, Martinus de Dacia, Johannes a S. Thoma, and James Harris. Each commentary is in turn commented upon by the compiler of this volume.