Portraits of Wittgenstein and Hume are used as test cases in some preliminary investigations of a new kind of philosophical picture. Such pictures are produced via a variety of visual transformations of the original portraits, with a final selection for display and discussion being based on the few results that seem to have some interesting relevance to the character or philosophical views of the philosopher in question.

Hans-Georg Gadamer, one of the towering figures of contemporary Continental philosophy, is best known for Truth and Method, where he elaborated the concept of "philosophical hermeneutics," a programmatic way to get to what we do when we engage in interpretation. Donatella Di Cesare highlights the central place of Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, in Gadamer's work, brings out differences between his thought and that of Heidegger, and connects him with discussions and debates in pragmatism. This is a sensitive and thoroughly readable (...) philosophical portrait of one of the 20th century’s most powerful thinkers. (shrink)

Highlights the central place of Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, in "Truth and Method" philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer's work, brings out differences between his thought and that of Heidegger and connects him with discussions and ...

Language -- Image -- Time -- Body -- Dream -- Myth -- Baudelaire -- Rescue -- Remembrance.

Toward the Eastern Capital -- The love of truth -- The protection of country -- The philosophy of Buddhism.

Dia·mytho·log·õmen: the first person plural present subjunctive active form of the verb διαμυθολογέω, ‘to converse,’ or, more literally, ‘to tell stories,’ and more literally still, ‘to speak about by way of myth.’ Adapted from Plato’s Phaedo (70b6), the word functions in the title as a hortatory subjunctive: ‘Let us converse, tell stories, mythologize.’ The book depicts through narrative the various activities of a philosopher, as a thinker, a teacher, a scholar, and a creative-intellectual writer. With reference to various philosophers, (...) to Plato and Nietzsche in particular, it develops accounts of philosophy as ‘Creative Pyrrhonism’ and of the philosopher as superior to the sage. (shrink)

This book shows that scientific explanations fall short of providing an exhaustive explanation of the dynamics of erotic perception. It furnishes portraits from Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, and Irigaray that help us understand the ethical, ontological, and religious dimensions of the pleasure, pain, hostility, shame, immodesty, tenderness, caring, and playfulness that compose erotic perception. The final portrait in the book portrays erotic perception as a challenge to existence. This portrait shows that the discernment of the other as sexually significant gives rise (...) to wonder, excitement, agitation, and trouble. The totality of existence is disturbed as we are faced with a decision about venturing to care for the other's existence. (shrink)

This work brings under the centrally unifying theme of 'rationality' some of the issues on values and personal responsibility he has addressed during his long ...

Featuring more than fifty halftones, this is an exhilarating philosophical exploration of portraiture that highlights its important contribution to the complex ...

In the field of modern photography, aesthetic recreations to varying degrees through the content of the images presented by photography, while forming a certain degree of philosophical aesthetic awareness, can awaken people's emotions and philosophical cognition. As a modeling language, the tone in photography is crucial in embodying the contrasting relationship between light and shade, virtual reality, and the different levels of black and white in black and white portrait photography. It is the most basic factor that constitutes a character's (...) image. Based on the unique performance characteristics of the art of black and white portrait photography, and based on the art of tone in photography and cognitive and aesthetic perspectives in philosophy, this article discusses the role, classification, and influencing factors of tone in black and white portrait photography, and expounds the different philosophical concepts of the East and the West represented by the differences in tone in black and white portrait photography. By analyzing the philosophical concepts and expressions of tone in black and white portrait photography, it can be seen that black and white portrait photography has simple and highly generalized artistic characteristics. It represents the characteristics, connotations, and aesthetic characteristics of black and white portrait photography with a unique art, and at the same time builds a bridge between the photographer and the viewer at the philosophical and aesthetic levels. (shrink)

" The essays trace the personal philosophical journeys and orientations of a remarkable group of men and women and reveal a fascinating array of intellectual ...

Freedom is one of the major elements in Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady. In an age when American women were usually engaged or married, James’s heroine, Isabel, was somewhat ahead of her time in hoping for a marriage in which she could still be independent. She was very fond of her liberty and afraid of losing it, but does her return to her husband, Osmond, at the end of the novel suggest that she has put an end to (...) her eagerness for freedom? It is an underlying argument of this study that James’s novel, in its last scene, covers a different aspect of freedom which, through a Schopenhauerian approach, delivers a different insight into liberty. This perception of freedom in The Portrait of a Lady has never been considered in connection with Arthur Schopenhauer’s view on the experience of freedom. The implicit critical point on which the paper is founded is that, although Schopenhauer is not conspicuously mentioned in James’s notes, there is important evidence that shows the convergence between the thoughts of Schopenhauer and Henry James; that is, that evidence through which this study aims to analyse the heroine’s final decision in the last scene. (shrink)

This paper presents a close analysis of Steve Pyke’s famous series of portraits of philosophers. By comparing his photographs to other well-known series of portraits and to other portraits of philosophers we will seek a better understanding of the distinctiveness and fittingness of Pyke’s project. With brief nods to Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, G.W.F. Hegel, and Arthur Schopenhauer and an extensive critical investigation of Cynthia Freeland’s ideas on portraiture in general and her reading of Steve Pyke’s portraits in (...) particular, this paper will also aim to make a contribution to the philosophical debate on portraiture. (shrink)

The following is a reflection on the possibility of teaching by example, and especially as the idea of teaching by example is developed in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. My thesis is that Rousseau created a literary version of himself in his writings as an embodiment of his philosophy, rather in the same way and with the same purpose that Plato created a version of Socrates. This figure of Rousseau—a sort of philosophical portrait of the man of nature—is represented as (...) an example for us to follow. This would appear to have been dangerous and destabilizing work, given the mental distress that it caused Rousseau in striving to live up to his fictional self. Rousseau's own ideas on the nature of teaching by example are presented in a discussion of the section in ‘Emile’ which Rousseau takes from an incident in his own life—the story of his meeting with a young Savoyard priest who befriended him and influenced him through the power of his example. (shrink)

Joseph Ibn Kaspi was a prolific writer in one of the most productive periods in the history of Jewish philosophy. Joseph Ibn Kaspi: Portrait of a Hebrew Philosopher in Medieval Provence investigates his overarching intellectual project and important themes in his writings.

"--Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania ""The Philosopher, the Priest, and the Painter" is an excellent introduction for general readers to Descartes and his thought. Nadler brings the story and ideas to life.

Si nul ne sait ce que peut un environnement, nul ne sait sans doute davantage ce que peut être de nos jours une philosophie de l’environnement. Aussi est-il souhaitable de faire dialoguer des philosophes d’ici et d’ailleurs, d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, que nous avons tendance à tenir pour étrangers aux problèmes environnementaux parce que nous négligeons le plus souvent de les interroger sur ce chapitre où les questions et les réponses semblent connues d’avance. En tirant le portrait sur fond de crise (...) écologique de plus d’une quinzaine de penseurs différents (d’Edmund Husserl à Peter Sloterdijk, en passant par Martin Heidegger, Arne Næss et Gilles Deleuze), dont les voix et les visages parfois se mêlent, cet ouvrage voudrait modifier l’éclairage sous lequel ces penseurs sont perçus et, par là, contribuer à jeter une autre lumière sur ce que peuvent être les enjeux et les défis d’une pensée de l’environnement dont l’identité reste à construire. (shrink)

Il s’agit ici d’aborder comparativement Nietzsche et Shakespeare sous le rapport de la « folie ». Après avoir résumé Le Roi Lear, de Shakespeare, l’article s’attache à définir le personnage du Fol (ou bouffon) comme porteur d’une vérité cynique et porteur du thème de l’inversion des valeurs propre au paradigme carnavalesque de la fête (Saturnales antiques), auquel Nietzsche, autant que Shakespeare, a pu puiser. On montre ensuite, dans une perspective foucaldienne, que la folie dans la pièce de Shakespeare garde un (...) caractère d’ambiguïté, la vérité semblant circuler entre les différents types de folie (feinte, oraculaire, poétique) que démontrent les différents personnages de la pièce. On rappelle enfin la cohérence entre le rapport philosophique et le rapport existentiel de Nietzsche à la maladie. La notion d’Amor Fati, qui imprègne également la pièce de Shakespeare, synthétise cette attitude à la fois tragique et dionysienne. (shrink)

Introduction to the life and work of G.E.M. Anscombe.

In this riveting collection, which he has been working on for twenty-five years, Pyke presents 100 black-and-white portraits of contemporary philosophers, ...

André Gorz (1923-2007), pionnier de l'écologie politique, est en voie de reconnaissance.

PORTRAITS FROM MEMORY and Other Essays by BERTRAND RUSSELL SIMON AND SCHUSTER NEW YORK 1956 VI CONTENTS PAGE Mind and Matter 1 45 The Cult of Common Usage 1 66 ...

Kolman''s philosophy has been, throughout the major part of his life, distinctly Stalinist. After he had been released from prison and after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R. (1956), he became critical of Stalinist dogmatism in philosophy and politics. Although his philosophic thought underwent some — if only minor — changes, Kolman remained entirely within the framework of Marxist philosophy, retaining its foundations, as contained in the writings of the classics of Marxism — Marx, Engels and (...) Lenin. (shrink)