Product Description: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was the first great English philosopher and one of the most important theorists of human nature and politics in the history of Western thought. This superlative introduction presents Hobbes' main doctrines and arguments, covering all of Hobbes' philosophy...read more

Concepts from the entire range of Hobbes's philosophy - politics, ethics, religion, science, metaphysics and language - are explained in over 140 entries in this volume. Most entries begin with a general description of how Hobbes uses a term before going into a detailed explanation of it. There are numerous references to his discussions of these topics in both major and minor works, including the Latin versions. The introduction contains a biography of Hobbes that is integrated with a history of early- and middle-Stuart England. There are also two detailed chronologies, one of Hobbes's life and works, the other of important dates in British history. These dates are correlated with Hobbes's discussion of them in "Behemoth" and "Leviathan". The bibliography lists the first editions of his works, important 17th-century books and a select bibliography of recent scholarship by philosophers, historians and political scientists. This volume should be of interest to specialists and non-specialists interested in Hobbes's thoughts.

Product Description: The problem of the nature of fiction and the problem of nonexistence are closely tied because fiction often talks about nonexistent entities. In Fiction, Reference, and Nonexistence, A. P. Martinich and Avrum Stroll, two of America's leading philosophers, explore fiction and undertake an analytic philosophical study of fiction and its reference and its relation to truth...read more

What is meaning? What is the relationship between language and the world? How is linguistic communication possible? This comprehensive anthology contains thirty-seven of the most important articles in the philosophy of language, including both classic articles by such philosophers as Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, J.L. Austin, W.V. Quine, and P.F. Strawson and recent work by Saul Kripke, David Kaplan, Donald Davidson, David Lewis, John Searle, and Noam Chomsky. The Second Edition includes six new selections by Russell, Searle, H.P. Grice, Robert Stalnaker, Hilary Putnam, and Chomsky. Clearly structured in a way that both students and teachers will find appealing, the new edition is divided into seven sections that cover all of the central issues in the philosophy of language: Truth and Meaning, Speech Acts, Reference and Descriptions, Names and Demonstratives, Propositional Attitudes, Metaphor, and The Nature of Language. The articles included represent a range of different approaches to the philosophy of language and many build upon or discuss previous articles. Expanded introductions to each section provide the background necessary for understanding the philosophical issues and the connections between the articles. A bibliography of suggested further reading is included at the end of each section. Reorganized and consolidated for easier accessibility, and with new material throughout, The Philosophy of Language, Second Edition, is an essential text for courses in the philosophy of language, linguistic studies, semantics, and rhetoric.

Product Description: What do ‘meaning’ and ‘truth’ mean? And how are they situated in the concrete practices of linguistic communication? What is the relationship between words and the world? How―with words―can people do such varied things as marry, inaugurate a president, and declare a country’s independence? How is language able to express knowledge, belief, and other mental states? What are metaphors and how do they work? Is a mathematically rigorous account of language possible? Does language make women invisible and encode a male worldview? These are the kind of questions that have been addressed by philosophers of language since ancient times...read more

As well as being considered the greatest English political philosopher, Hobbes has traditionally been thought of as a purely secular thinker, highly critical of all religion. In this provocative new study, Professor Martinich argues that conventional wisdom has been misled. In fact, he shows that religious concerns pervade Leviathan and that Hobbes was really intent on providing a rational defense of the Calvinistic Church of England that flourished under the reign of James I. Professor Martinich presents a close reading of Leviathan in which he shows that, for Hobbes, Christian doctrine is not politically destabilizing and is consistent with modern science. (view table of contents)