The Cambridge History of Philosophy 1870-1945

The Cambridge History of Philosophy 1870–1945 comprises over sixty specially commissioned essays by experts on the philosophy of this period and is designed to be accessible to non-specialists who have little previous familiarity with philosophy. As with the other volumes in the series, much of the emphasis of the essays is thematic, concentrating on developments during the period across a range of philosophical topics, from logic and metaphysics to political philosophy and philosophy of religion. Several chapters also discuss the changing relationship of philosophy to the natural and social sciences during this period. The result is an authoritative survey of this rich and varied period of philosophical activity, which will be of critical importance not only to teachers and students of philosophy but also to scholars in neighbouring disciplines such as the history of science, the history of ideas, theology and the social sciences.

Introduction; Part I. 1870–1914; Section 1. The Dialectical Situation in 1870: Positivism vs. Idealism: 1. The positivist tradition; 2. Neo-Kantianism: the German idealism movement; 3. Idealism in Britain and the USA; 4. Idealism in Russia; Section 2. The Argument Moves on: Pragmatism and the New Realisms: 5. Bergson; 6. Pragmatism; 7. Psychology: old and new; 8. The unconscious mind; Section 3. The New Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics: 9. The new logic: revival, reform, revolution; 10. Foundations of mathematics; Section 4. From Judgement to Language: 11. Theories of judgement; 12. The logical analysis of language; Section 5. Physics and the Philosophy of Science: 13. The atomism debate; 14. Theories of space-time in modern physics; Section 6. Philosophy of History and the Idea of Social Sciences: 15. The German debate and the Geisteswissenschaften; 16. From political economy to positive economics; 17. Sociology and the idea of social science; Section 7. Ethical Theory: 18. Utilitarians and idealists; 19. Nietzsche; 20. The new realism in ethics; Section 8. Legal and Political Theory: 21. Individualism vs. collectivism; 22. Marxism and anarchism; 23. Legal theory; Section 9. Philosophy and Religion: 24. Sceptical challenges to faith; 25. The defence of faith; Section 10. Philosophy and the Arts: 26. Art and morality: aesthetics at 1870; 27. Format and feeling: aesthetics at the turn of the century; Interlude: philosophy and the Great War; Part II. 1914–45; Section 11. Logic and Philosophy: The Analytic Programme: 28. Logical atomism; 29. Logical positivism; 30. The achievements of the Polish school of logic; 31. Logic and philosophical analysis; Section 12. From Idealism and Naturalism to Phenomenology and Existentialism: 32. The continuing idealist tradition; 33. Transformations in speculative philosophy; 34. Realism, naturalism and pragmatism; 35. French Catholic philosophy; 36. Spanish philosophy; 37. The phenomenological movement; 38. Heidegger; 39. Latin American philosophy; 40. Japanese philosophy; Section 13. Perception, Knowledge, Language, and the End of Metaphysics: 41. Sensible appearances; 42. The renaissance of epistemology; 43. The solipsism debates; 44. Language; 45. The end of philosophy as metaphysics; Section 14. Philosophy and the Exact Sciences: 46. First-order logic and its rivals; 47. The golden age of mathematical logic; 48. General relativity; 49. Scientific explanation; 50. The rise of probabilistic thinking; Section 15. Mind and its Place in Nature: 51. Vitalism and emergentism; 52. Behaviourism and psychology; 53. Gestalt psychology; 54. Wittgenstein's conception of mind; Section 16. Philosophy and The Social Sciences: 55. The methodology of the social sciences; 56. The rise of social anthropology; 57. Western Marxism and ideology critique; Section 17. Ethics and Religion: Emotivism, Intuitionism, and Authenticity: 58. From intuitionism to emotivism; 59. Philosophy of religion; Section 18. Literature and Aesthetic Theory: 60. Literature as philosophy; 61. Aesthetics between the wars: art and liberation; Section 19. The Decline of Europe: 62. The liberal democratic state: defences and developments, 1918–45; 63. Hans Kelsen and normative legal positivism; 64. The liberal democratic state – critics; Bibliographical appendix; Bibliography.

Specially commissioned essays tracing the remarkable flowering of philosophy in the 1870s, with the start of German neo-Kantianism, American pragmatism and British idealism, through to the beginnings of the phenomenological movement and analytical philosophy in the early years of the twentieth century.

Thomas Baldwin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of York.