Simon Gros

Karl Löwith’s Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same is a monumental contribution to the scholarly understanding of Friedrich Nietzsche’s thought, offering a rigorous and critical exploration of one of Nietzsche’s most enigmatic and contested doctrines: the eternal recurrence. Löwith’s work, originally published in 1935 in the perilous intellectual and political climate of…

In The Legacy of Idealism, Terry Pinkard presents a work that presents the evolution of German philosophy with the sociocultural and political transformations occurring in Germany during a pivotal century. This expansive work explicates the philosophical upheavals that took place during the latter half of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century, when German…

Philosophy and Post-Structuralist Theory by Claire Colebrook is an expansive exploration of post-structuralist theory as it emerges from the often conflicting legacies of Kantian philosophy, phenomenology, and the broader Enlightenment tradition. Colebrook’s work traces the historical development of these ideas and analyses their philosophical implications, providing a rigorous critique of contemporary thought through the lens…

Karl Marx and Contemporary Philosophy, edited by Andrew Chitty and Martin McIvor, is a formidable and rigorous analysis of the philosophical dimensions and implications of Karl Marx’s thought, revealing his enduring relevance in the contemporary intellectual landscape. This collection, drawn from papers presented at meetings of the Marx and Philosophy Society, offers a unique, comprehensive…

Corey W. Dyck’s Early Modern German Philosophy (1690-1750) is an erudite curated collection that serves as a crucial work for English-speaking scholars and students to get a glimpse into the rich, yet often overlooked, philosophical landscape of early modern Germany. This period, commonly bracketed between the towering figures of Leibniz and Kant, is frequently reduced…

In The Introduction to Hegel’s Philosophy of Fine Art, Bernard Bosanquet, a past distinguished philosopher and translator, invites the English-speaking world to engage with one of the most influential works of aesthetic philosophy ever conceived—Hegel’s Æsthetics. Originally published in 1905, this translation serves as a bridge between German and English spheres of philosophy through which…

H. J. Paton’s Kant’s Metaphysic of Experience is a monumental effort to provide what has long been a glaring omission in the landscape of Kantian scholarship—a thorough, sentence-by-sentence commentary on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason that does not merely engage with Kant’s text but seeks to elucidate its meaning with precision and rigor. It is…

In Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard, Clare Carlisle invites readers into the tumultuous life of one of the most significant figures in modern philosophy. Often heralded as the father of Existentialism, Kierkegaard’s work was characterized by an unwavering inquiry into the nature of existence, delving deeply into what it means…

In The First German Philosopher, Cecilia Muratori presents the philosophical exchange between G.W.F. Hegel and the mystical thought of Jakob Böhme, positioning Böhme not merely as an isolated figure within the realm of mysticism but rather as a cornerstone of German philosophical tradition. The book deftly unpacks the historical and intellectual milieu in which Hegel…

True Freedom by Brent Adkins presents Spinoza’s philosophy, focusing predominantly on its ethical dimensions and its applicability to the practical concerns of living a meaningful life. Adkins, through his scholarly yet accessible approach, aims to unravel the complexities of Spinoza’s thoughts by anchoring them in the everyday realities of human experience. Unlike many interpretations that…

In Hegel’s Philosophy of the Historical Religions, edited by Bart Labuschagne and Timo Slootweg, a presentation of G.W.F. Hegel’s engagement with the concept of religion unfolds through a collection of critical essays that illuminate the philosopher’s evolving thoughts on various historical religions. Hegel’s engagement with religion was a lifelong obsession that haunted him from his…

Hegel, Marx, and the Contemporary World, edited by Kaveh Boiveiri and Emmanuel Chaput, is a significant scholarly contribution to the ongoing discourse surrounding the philosophical legacies of Hegel and Marx, particularly in relation to the pressing crises of the twenty-first century. Originating from a three-day conference held at the University of Montreal in April 2014,…

Hegel on Tragedy, an anthology edited by Anne and Henry Paolucci, is a compilation of some of the most challenging thoughts ever penned by one of the most formidable philosophers in the Western canon—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. This 1962 collection is not merely an assembly of Hegel’s musings on tragedy, it’s an entrance to the…

The international philosophical conference Between Substance & Subject: The Presence of Spinoza in Hegel, held in Ljubljana from October 26 to 28, 2023, at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT), was a collaborative initiative between the University of Padua and the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts and AGRFT. This conference was…

The international philosophical conference Between Substance & Subject: The Presence of Spinoza in Hegel, held from 26 to 28 October 2023 at the University of Ljubljana’s Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television (AGRFT), served as a pivotal platform for scholarly discourse on the interrelations between the philosophies of Baruch Spinoza and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich…

Ideal Embodiment: Kant’s Theory of Sensibility by Angelica Nuzzo provides a novel reinterpretation of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy, particularly his concept of sensibility, which has often been eclipsed by his more renowned ideas on pure reason and the transcendental subject. Nuzzo’s work challenges the conventional understanding of Kant as privileging reason over sensibility, a view that…

Aesthetic Dimensions of Modern Philosophy by Andrew Bowie goes through the interplay between aesthetics and the fundamental domains of modern philosophy, challenging the prevailing marginalization of art within the analytical tradition. Bowie posits that the aesthetic, often relegated to the periphery of philosophical inquiry, holds crucial implications for epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of…

Baumgarten’s Philosophical Ethics: A Critical Translation by John Hymers is an essential contribution to the understanding of the intellectual genesis and development of German moral philosophy in the eighteenth century. It’s is a presentation of the influence that Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten’s Ethica Philosophica had on his contemporaries and, most significantly, on Immanuel Kant. Hymers’ work…

Thinking and the I: Hegel and the Critique of Kant by Alfredo Ferrarin is an ambitious analysis of the relationship between thought and the subjectivity of the thinker, a question that has reverberated through the history of Western philosophy. At the heart of this problem lies a fundamental challenge to the prevailing assumptions of modern…

Alain Badiou’s The Rational Kernel of the Hegelian Dialectic is a text of deep historical and philosophical significance, a dense work situated within the turbulent intellectual landscape of the late 1970s. As the concluding piece of a trilogy that includes Theory of Contradiction and On Ideology, this work captures the essence of Badiou’s engagement with…

The Young Spinoza: A Metaphysician in the Making, edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed, stands as a seminal contribution to the field of Spinoza studies, offering an unprecedented exploration of the early intellectual development of one of philosophy’s most enigmatic and influential figures. The volume arrives at a moment of renewed interest in Spinoza within Anglo-American…

The collection of Spinoza: Complete Works is an unparalleled achievement in the landscape of Western philosophy, presenting the full corpus of Baruch Spinoza’s writings in a single translated volume. This book is an intellectual edifice, one that demands a profound engagement with the foundational ideas of metaphysics, ethics, politics, and religion. Edited by Michael L.…

In this work, originally published in 1969, F. M. Barnard curated a compelling collection of Johann Gottfried Herder’s most significant and intellectually provocative writings, which illuminate Herder’s ideas on politics, history, and language—an amalgamation that remains remarkably relevant in today’s socio-political discourse. The volume is notable for making accessible a plethora of Herder’s writings, thereby…

After Herder by Michael N. Forster emerges as a formidable scholarly work that reorients our understanding of the philosophy of language, not merely by revisiting the legacy of Johann Gottfried Herder but by situating him at the very epicentre of a philosophical revolution that rippled through German intellectual history. Forster’s book does not merely trace…

Against Pure Reason by Johann Gottfried Herder, translated and curated by Marcia Bunge, emerges as a vital rediscovery of an underappreciated thinker whose intellectual breadth and depth resonate profoundly with the concerns of contemporary thought. Herder, a towering figure in the twilight of the Enlightenment and the dawn of Romanticism, occupies a crucial yet often…

Herder’s Shakespeare is not merely a treatise on the great Elizabethan playwright; it is a monumental turning point in the history of literary criticism and aesthetic philosophy, a work that helped to realign the intellectual landscape of Europe at a crucial juncture. Published in 1773 as part of the pamphlet Von deutscher Art und Kunst,…

Sculpture by Johann Gottfried Herder, translated by Jason Gaiger, is an extraordinary contribution to the annals of aesthetics, particularly in the context of 18th-century thought. In this dense and highly intricate work, Herder navigates the turbulent intellectual waters between the rationalist impulses of the Enlightenment and the burgeoning sentiments of Romanticism, offering a meditation on…

Herder’s Another Philosophy of History and Selected Political Writings, masterfully translated and introduced by Ioannis D. Evrigenis and Daniel Pellerin, offers readers a presentation of the intellectual landscape of a thinker whose influence reverberates through the corridors of modern nationalism, historicism, and cultural philosophy. Herder, often hailed as the father of these interconnected ideas, is…

Selected Writings on Aesthetics, edited and translated by Gregory Martin Moore, offers an essential gateway into the intellectual world of one of the most pivotal and, yet in many ways, underappreciated figures in the history of Western thought. Herder, a contemporary of the Enlightenment’s most illustrious philosophers, uniquely bridges the domains of aesthetics, anthropology, history,…

In his compelling work Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder, Isaiah Berlin analyses the intellectual landscape that shaped the Counter-Enlightenment, offering a nuanced presentation of three pivotal figures who critiqued the principles underlying Enlightenment thought. Through the essays that comprise this volume, Berlin does not merely recount the ideas of Giambattista Vico, Johann…

Song Loves the Masses: Herder on Music and Nationalism by Philip V. Bohlman is an intellectual and philosophical work on Johann Gottfried Herder’s musings on music, nationalism, religion, and aesthetics. Not merely a collection of translations, it is an exploration of how Herder’s scattered writings on music could coalesce into a singular, monumental work, a…

Herder: Philosophical Writings, edited and translated by Michael N. Forster, is an indispensable volume that offers a comprehensive insight into the philosophical landscape of Johann Gottfried von Herder, one of the most pivotal figures in eighteenth-century German thought. The book provides an expertly curated selection of Herder’s most significant philosophical works, many of which have…

Herder and Enlightenment Politics by Eva Piirimäe presents a detailed examination of Johann Gottfried Herder’s political thought, challenging prevailing interpretations and offering a radically new understanding of his contributions to Enlightenment debates on modern patriotism, commerce, and peace. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) stands as a pivotal figure in the genesis of philosophical anthropology and cultural…

Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind by Johann Gottfried Herder is a vast and ambitious work that stands as one of the most significant contributions to Enlightenment thought. Published in four volumes between 1784 and 1791, Herder’s magnum opus sought nothing less than a comprehensive understanding of the human experience, tracing its…

In Confronting Reification:, Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker and a diverse group of fourteen international scholars present a nuanced analysis of Georg Lukács’s philosophical contributions, particularly his theory of reification, which emerged as one of the most significant critiques of capitalist society in the early twentieth century. Lukács (1885-1971), a pivotal figure in Marxist thought, melded literary…

In Georg Lukács and Critical Theory, Tyrus Miller offers a comprehensive examination of the interplay between Georg Lukács’s philosophy and the broader context of critical theory, particularly as it relates to the early Frankfurt School. This exploration is situated within contemporary discussions surrounding authoritarianism, the crises of modernity, and the enduring quest for democratization. Miller…

Recovering the Later Georg Lukács by Matthew J. Smetona is an expansive and rigorous exploration of the later writings of Georg Lukács, a figure whose philosophical and literary contributions have long been a subject of both reverence and contention within the canon of Western Marxism. Smetona’s work is nothing less than a scholarly excavation of…

The philosophical biography of Georg Lukács by G.H.R. Parkinson, first published in 1977, offers a detailed exposition of the intellectual evolution and cultural contexts of one of the most significant Marxist philosophers of the 20th century. The book serves as both an intellectual biography and a comprehensive guide to Lukács’s extensive body of work, tracing…