Skip to Content

NOZICK, ROBERT.

Philosophical Explanations. - [A GROUNDBREAKING WORK OF EPISTEMOLOGY]

Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn36286
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1981. Royal 8vo. Orig. full grey cloth w. white lettering to spine. Orig. black, red and white dust-jacket, not price-clipped. A few small tears to capitals and corners of dust-jacket w. very minor loss. Binding and internally near mint. XII, (2), 764, (1) pp.

First edition, presentation copy from the author "For Iz/ Fondly,/ Bob", dated "August, 1981", of this highly important work of modern day philosophy. This is Nozick's second book, and it constitutes his most influential contribution to philosophy outside of political theory. In this work Nozick develops his "externalist" theory of knowledge. The work covers many aspects of metaphysics and ethics, but especially the metaphysics of personal identity occupies a central role in this main work, which comes second in importance to only his seminal "Anarchy, State and Utopia" (1974). Robert Nozick (1938 -2002) was an American philosopher, born in Brooklyn, and Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. He was a thinker with wide-ranging interests, and he is now considered one of the most important and influential political philosophers of the Anglo-American analytic tradition, together with John Rawls. In his Philosophical Explanations, which received the Phi Beta Kappa Society's Waldo Emerson Award, Nozick brings forth the now so famous, but then novel and (still) controversial accounts of knowledge, free will, personal identity and meaning of life. The "Philosophical Explanations" is thus a groundbreaking work in several ways:According to traditional theories of knowledge, a knower S knows a proposition p if and only if S believes p, p is true, and S is justified in believing p. The problem with the three instances here is the last, namely what does "being justified in believing" entail? Nozick here comes up with a unique contribution that has been of great importance to epistemologists ever since: He determines this belief negatively. It is the counterfactuals that make the true belief count as knowledge, i.e. 1) S would not believe p, if p were not true (the "variation" condition), and 2) under different circumstances, S would still believe and would not believe the negation of p (the "adherence" condition). Nozick determines a belief that fulfills these conditions as one that "tracks the truth". Furthermore, Nozick uses his analysis in answering skepticism, and controversially denies the "closure principle" (if S knows that p and that p entails q, then S knows that q), bringing him great (and not necessarily positive) fame among epsitemologists. Thus Nozick here presents an epistemological system designed to deal with Gettier-style problems as well as those posed by skepticism, and his argument became highly influential. Furthermore, in "Philosophical Explanations", Nozick also presents his "closest continuer" theory, his seminal contribution to the debate of personal identity. The question of personal identity has a long tradition among philosophers and can stem from puzzles like: If person A wakes up in the body of person B, who is he? Is he A, or is he B? Nozick comes up with an answer to such questions, namely that it is the later person who "most closely continues" the earlier one who is the one truly identical to the latter. Of course, this leaves room for interpretation, and so in Nozick's view, personal identity comes to partly depend upon the factors that are most important to the answerer, e.g. bodily or psychological properties.Apart from the groundbreaking ideas presented in this work, it is also famous for posing numerous questions, the answers to which are often left to the reader, for using non-philosophical works to illustrate philosophical points, and not least for the curious style, in which it is written."This book puts forward its explanations in a very tentative spirit; not only do I not ask you to believe they are correct, I do not think it important for me to believe them correct, either. Still, I do believe, and hope you will find it so, that these proposed explanations are illuminating and worth considering, that they are worth surpassing; also, that the process of seeking and elaborating explanations, being open to new possibilities, the new wonderings and wanderings, the free exploration, is itself a delight. Can any pleasure compare to that of a new idea, a new question?There is sexual experience, of course, not dissimilar, with its own playfulness and possibilities, its focused freedom, its depth, its sharp pleasures and its gentle ones, its ecstacies. What is the mind's excitement and sensuality? What its orgasm? Whatever, it unfortunately will frighten and offend the puritans of the mind (do the two puritanisms share a common root?) even as it expands others and brings them joy." (Nozick, Introduction, p. 24)."Iz" in the presentation is the famous philosopher of education, Israel Scheffler, Professor Emeritus of Education and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is a founding member of The National Academy of Education and author of "Four Pragmatists", "In Praise of the Cognitive Emotions", "Symbolic Worlds" and other works in philosophy as well as of a memoir on his early Jewish education, "Teachers of My Youth".
Address:
Silkegade 11
DK-1113 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone:
CVR/VAT:
DK 16 89 50 16

Recently Added From Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S

Anmärkiningar Om biåsestenen. (In:
More Photos
BERGIUS, PETER JONAS
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62692
(Stockholm, 1777). 8vo. As extracted from "Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar", uncut unopened. Fine and clean. Pp. 304-309.
Defensio regia pro Carolo I. Ad Sereniss. Magnae…
More Photos
SAUMAISE; CLAUDE.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62707
(Leiden, Netherlands), Sumptibus Regiis, 1649. 12mo. In contemporary full calf with four raise bands and richly gilt spine. Edges of boards gilt. Previous owner's name to title-page. Worm-tract throughout, otherwise internally nice and clean. 444 pp.
Pierre Simon Laplace 1749-1827. A Determined…
More Photos
HAHN, ROGER.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62703
Cambridge (MA), Harvard University Press, 2005. 8vo. In the original full cloth publisher's binding with title to spine. With the original dust jacket. Ownership signature to inside of front board. Internally clean. X, (1), 310 pp.
Medicinische und philosophische Schrifften von…
More Photos
ALBERTI, MICHAEL.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62695
Halle im Magdeburgischen, Hendel, 1721. 8vo. In contemporary full calf with four raise bands and richly gilt spine. Traces from old paper-label to upper part of spine. Leather on spine cracked, spine-ends slightly chipped. Internally nice and clean. (14), 620, (28) pp. First collected edition of Alberti’s essays. Alberti (1682–1757), professor of medicine and philosophy at Halle and later rector of the university, was a leading disciple of Georg Ernst Stahl who considered the soul as having control on the body. Therapies involved dealing with the internal senses and feelings.
More info
Tale i Anledning af hans Kongelige Høihed…
More Photos
BUGGE, THOMAS.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62706
Kiøbenhavn, Møller, (1774). 8vo. In contemporary full sprinkled calf with five raised bands and gilt ornamentation to spine. Edges of boards gilt. All edges coloured in red. Old paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Head of spine chipped. Internally very nice and clean, printed on good paper. 24 pp.
O Capital. (i.e. Portuguese:
More Photos
MARX, CARLOS [KARL] (+) GABRIELLE DEVILLE (+) [Translator:] ALBANO DE MORAES.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62679
Lisboa, De Francisco Luiz Goncalves, 1912. 8vo. In the original red printed cloth-binding with black and white lettering. Spine with loss of the white lettering. Paper-label pasted on to lower inner margin of front board. Very light wear to extremities, Internally very fine and clean. 240 pp. The exceedingly scarce first Portuguese edition of the most important abridged version of Marx's Capital ever to have appeared, published fifty-six years before the first full Portuguese (but published in Brazil) translation and whole sixy-two years before the first full translation published in Portugal. Curiously, two translations of the present work were made 1912 but the present translation seems to have priority (see Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). After the 1933 rise of Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime, suppression of the relatively newly founded Communist party grew. Members were arrested, tortured, and executed and many were sent to the Tarrafal concentration camp in the Cape Verde Islands. Communist literature suffered an equally repressive fate, hence the rarity of the present work. Marxism and especially Marxist writing caught on comparatively late in Portugal: "As for the Socialist Party - supposed to be the main expression of Marxism -, it revealed itself unable to stimulate effective theoretical and doctrinal efforts. Its existence was an example of ambiguity and inconsequence. Its political programme went on mixing Marxian elements, associationist tradition and positivist thinking. Its strategy balanced continuously between an alliance with republican politicians and the maintenance of political autonomy. Its tatics balanced between electoral abstencionism and an involvement in election processes, that never led it to a relevant position in parliament. Even its international relations showed a lasting ambiguity: it had been created according to the instructions of the Marxist majority at the Hague Congress, when most of its members tended to support political abstencionism. When the formation of the Second lnternacional was taking place in Paris in 1889 Portuguese socialists tried to join the Marxist congress, after being present at the possibilist congress. In 1920 they decided to join the Third lnternacional (what was not accomplished), at the same time that an internal reformist turn was taking place." (Bastien, "Readings and Translations of Karl Marx in Portugal"). "The epitome, here translated, was published in Paris, in 1883, by Gabriel Deville, possibly the most brilliant writer among the French Marxians. It is the most successful attempt yet made to popularize Marx's scientific economics. It is by no means free from difficulties, for the subject is essentially a complex and difficult subject, but there are no difficulties that reasonable attention and patience will not enable the average reader to overcome. There is no attempt at originality. The very words in most cases are Marx's own words, and Capital is followed so closely that the first twenty-five chapters correspond in subject and treatment with the first twenty-five chapters of Capital. Chapter XXVI corresponds in the main with Chapter XXVI of Capital, but also contains portions of chapter XXX. The last three chapters-XXVII, XXVIII, and XXIX-correspond to the last three chapters-XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII-of Capital." (ROBERT RIVES LA MONTE, Intruductory Note to the 1899 English translation). Capital de Marx also had a Portuguese edition at this time, or better, two different editions, both in 1912, but only in translation of the survey of Book I published in France by Gabriel Deville in 1883 (Marx, 1912a and Marx, 1912b). This version omitted material dealt with in at least four chapters of the original text and was not particularly appreciated by Engels. It was a simplified text, aimed at supporting the training of socialist militants and that made it possible for them to have access, indirect, to the work of Marx. The other summaries and anthologies of Capital, which, with a purpose similar to that of Deville, circulated in Europe during this period or ignored in Portugal, as was the case with Carlo Cafiero, or were only occasionally mentioned, as was the case with Paul Lafargue and Karl Kautsky, in its French versions. OCLC list two copies, both in the US.
More info