Published Books
Faculty and scholars within the Graduate Center Philosophy program are prolific authors. Learn more about the books published by members of our community in the archive below.
Philosophy Books

Plato's Exceptional City, Love, and Philosopher
This book reconnoiters the appearances of the exceptional in Plato: as erotic desire (in the Symposium and Phaedrus), as the good city (Republic), and as the philosopher (Ion, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman). It offers fresh and sometimes radical interpretations of these dialogues.
Those exceptional elements of experience - love, city, philosopher - do not escape embodiment but rather occupy the same world that contains lamentable versions of each. Thus Pappas is depicting the philosophical ambition to intensify the concepts and experiences one normally thinks with. His investigations point beyond the fates of these particular exceptions to broader conclusions about Plato's world.
Plato's Exceptional City, Love, and Philosopher will be of interest to any readers of Plato, and of ancient philosophy more broadly.
Published February 2021
Routledge, 2020

Spinoza
Justin Steinberg and Vatteri Viljanen
Benedict de Spinoza is one of the most controversial and enigmatic thinkers in the history of philosophy. His greatest work, Ethics (1677), developed a comprehensive philosophical system and argued that God and Nature are identical. His scandalous Theological-Political Treatise (1670) provoked outrage during his lifetime due to its biblical criticism, anticlericalism, and defense of the freedom to philosophize. Together, these works earned Spinoza a reputation as a singularly radical thinker.
In this book, Steinberg and Viljanen offer a concise and up-to-date account of Spinoza’s thought and its philosophical legacy. They explore the full range of Spinoza’s ideas, from politics and theology to ontology and epistemology. Drawing broadly on Spinoza’s impressive oeuvre, they have crafted a lucid introduction for readers unfamiliar with this important philosopher, as well as a nuanced and enlightening study for more experienced readers.
Accessible and compelling, Spinoza is the go-to text for anyone seeking to understand the thought of one of history’s most fascinating thinkers.
Published January 2021
Polity, 2020

Hungry Ghosts
Monsoon, 2020 SINGAPORE SAGA, VOL.3
Set against the development of Singapore in the years 1852-1869, Hungry Ghosts (Singapore Saga, Vol 3) continues the vivid portrayal of the lives of the early pioneers, including Tan Kim Ching, W. H. Read, Habib Noh, Tan Kim Seng, Mother St Mathilde, Syed Ahmed Alsagoff and Whampoa as well as an array of fictional characters who bring nineteenth-century Singapore to life.
A female refugee from the Taiping Rebellion is kidnapped in Amoy and sold as a concubine in Singapore; an enterprising Indian convict converts his training as a metalworker into the more lucrative business of counterfeiting; a terror-filled secret society soldier is led down to the ten courts of hell on the night of the hungry ghosts; Duncan Simpson meets with the Heavenly King in Nanking and is tortured in a Chinese prison; an English wife escapes a loveless marriage when the ‘ghost ship’ CSS Alabama puts into Singapore.
As the fates and fortunes of its protagonists play themselves out against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny, the Second Opium War and the last years of the Taiping rebellion, Singapore becomes a Crown colony and celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its founding.
Hungry Ghosts is volume three in the Singapore Saga, a series of historical fiction covering the early years of Singapore, and follows Forbidden Hill and Chasing the Dragon.
Published November 2020

Singapore Saga, Vol 3: Hungry Ghosts
Set against the development of Singapore in the years 1852-1869, Hungry Ghosts (Singapore Saga, Vol 3) continues the vivid portrayal of the lives of the early pioneers, including Tan Kim Ching, W. H. Read, Habib Noh, Tan Kim Seng, Mother St Mathilde, Syed Ahmed Alsagoff, and Whampoa as well as an array of fictional characters who bring 19th-century Singapore to life.
A female refugee from the Taiping Rebellion is kidnapped in Amoy and sold as a concubine in Singapore; an enterprising Indian convict converts his training as a metalworker into the more lucrative business of counterfeiting; a terror-filled secret society soldier is led down to the 10 courts of hell on the night of the hungry ghosts; Duncan Simpson meets with the Heavenly King in Nanking and is tortured in a Chinese prison; an English wife escapes a loveless marriage when the 'ghost ship' CSS Alabama puts into Singapore.
As the fates and fortunes of its protagonists play themselves out against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny, the Second Opium War, and the last years of the Taiping rebellion, Singapore becomes a crown colony and celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding.
Hungry Ghosts is volume three in the Singapore Saga, a series of historical fiction covering the early years of Singapore, and follows; Forbidden Hill and Chasing the Dragon.
Published October 2020
Monsoon Books, 2020

A Field Guide to a Happy Life
A GUIDE TO CHOOSING YOUR PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY
For more than 2,000 years, Stoicism has offered a message of resilience in the face of hardship. Little wonder, then, that it is having such a revival in our own troubled times. But there is no denying how weird it can be: Is it really the case that we shouldn’t care about our work, our loved ones, or our own lives? According to the old Stoics, yes.
In A Field Guide to a Happy Life, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci offers a renewed Stoicism that reflects modern science and sensibilities. Pigliucci embraces the joyful bonds of affection, the satisfactions of a job well done, and the grief that attends loss. In his hands, Stoicism isn’t about feats of indifference, but about enduring pain without being overwhelmed, while enjoying pleasures without losing our heads. In short, he makes Stoicism into a philosophy all of us — whether committed Stoics or simply seekers — can use to live better.
Published January 2020

Singapore Saga, Vol 2: Chasing the Dragon
Set against the expansion of Singapore in the years 1834-1854, Chasing the Dragon (Singapore Saga, Vol. 2) continues to vividly portray the lives of the early pioneers of the expanding port city, including Joseph Balestier, Seah Eu Chin, Captain Henry Keppel, Tan Tock Seng, Munshi Abdullah, Governor Butterworth and Whampoa as well as fictional characters who bring nineteenth-century Singapore to life.
Duncan Simpson comes to manhood when he joins James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak, on his expeditions against the piratical Borneo Dayaks; an Indian cattleman turns to tiger hunting when his herd is decimated by disease; a Malay magician conjures up magic spells to capture the love of a woman and destroy her husband; a Chinese mother is haunted by the ghostly cries of her abandoned child; a mesmerist performs a dangerous surgery; and Chinese secret society gangs murder Christian farmers in the interior of the island.
As the troop ships of the British Expeditionary Force assemble in Singapore in preparation for the First Opium War, Hong Xiuquan has a dream that will launch the Taiping Rebellion in China, taking the lives of twenty million and powerfully impacting the fortunes of the new citizens of Singapore.
Chasing the Dragon is volume two in the Singapore Saga, a series of historical fiction that spans the first 100 years of Singapore, and follows Forbidden Hill.
Published August 2019
Monsoon Books, 2019

Justification Logic: Reasoning with Reasons
Cambridge University Press, 2019
Classical logic is concerned, loosely, with the behaviour of truths. Epistemic logic similarly is about the behaviour of known or believed truths. Justification logic is a theory of reasoning that enables the tracking of evidence for statements and therefore provides a logical framework for the reliability of assertions. This book, the first in the area, is a systematic account of the subject, progressing from modal logic through to the establishment of an arithmetic interpretation of intuitionistic logic. The presentation is mathematically rigorous but in a style that will appeal to readers from a wide variety of areas to which the theory applies. These include mathematical logic, artificial intelligence, computer science, philosophical logic and epistemology, linguistics, and game theory.
Published June 2019

Approaching Hegel's Logic, Obliquely: Melville, Moliere, Beckett
In this book, Nuzzo proposes a reading of Hegel’s Logic as “logic of transformation” and “logic of action,” and supports this thesis by looking to works of literature and history as exemplary of Hegel’s argument and method. By examining Melville’s Billy Budd, Molière’s Tartuffe, Beckett’s Endgame, Elizabeth Bishop’s and Giacomo Leopardi’s late poetry along with Thucydides’ History in this way, Nuzzo finds an unprecedented and productive way to render Hegel’s Logic alive and engaging. She argues that Melville’s Billy Budd is the most successful embodiment of the abstract movement of thinking presented in Hegel’s Logic, connecting Billy Budd’s stutter to the puzzlingly inarticulate beginning of Hegel’s Logic, “Being, pure Being,” identical with “Nothing,” and argues that the Logic serves as an especially appropriate tool for understanding the sudden violent action that strikes Claggart dead. Through these and other readings, Nuzzo finds a fresh way to address interpretive issues that have remained unresolved for almost two centuries in Hegel scholarship, and also presents well-known works of literature in an entirely new light. This account of Hegel’s Logic is framed by the need for an interpretive tool able to orient our understanding of the contemporary world as mired in an unprecedented global crisis. How can the story of our historical present—the tragedy or the comedy we all play parts in—be told? What is the inner logic of our changing world?
Published February 2019
SUNY Press, 2018

Rape and Resistance
Polity, 2018
Sexual violence has become a topic of intense media scrutiny, thanks to the bravery of survivors coming forward to tell their stories. But, unfortunately, mainstream public spheres too often echo reports in a way that inhibits proper understanding of its causes, placing too much emphasis on individual responsibility or blaming minority cultures.
In this powerful and original book, Linda Martín Alcoff aims to correct the misleading language of public debate about rape and sexual violence by showing how complex our experiences of sexual violation can be. Although it is survivors who have galvanized movements like #MeToo, when their words enter the public arena they can be manipulated or interpreted in a way that damages their effectiveness. Rather than assuming that all experiences of sexual violence are universal, we need to be more sensitive to the local and personal contexts – who is speaking and in what circumstances – that affect how activists’ and survivors’ protests will be received and understood.
Alcoff has written a book that will revolutionize the way we think about rape, finally putting the survivor center stage.
Published September 2018

Singapore Saga, Vol 1: Forbidden Hill
Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd., 2018
On 6 February 1819, Stamford Raffles, William Farquhar, Temenggong Abdul Rahman and Sultan Hussein signed a treaty that granted the British East India Company the right to establish a trading settlement on the sparsely populated island of Singapore.
Forbidden Hill (Singapore Saga, Vol. 1) is a meticulously researched and vividly imagined historical narrative that brings to life the stories of the early European, Malay, Chinese and Indian pioneers -- the administrators, merchants, policemen, boatmen, coolies, concubines, slaves and secret society soldiers -- whose vision and intrigues drive the rapid expansion of the port city in the early decades of the nineteenth century. While Raffles and Farquhar clash over the administration of the settlement, the Scottish merchant adventurer Ronnie Simpson and Englishwoman Sarah Hemmings find love and redemption as they battle an American duelist and Illanun pirates.
As the ghosts of the rajahs of the ancient city of Singapura fade into the shadows of Forbidden Hill, the new settlers forge their linked destinies in the 'emporium of the Eastern seas'.
Published February 2018

A Conceptual History of Psychology: Exploring the Tangled Web
Cambridge University Press, 2015
In the new edition of this original and penetrating book, John D. Greenwood provides an in-depth analysis of the subtle conceptual continuities and discontinuities that inform the history of psychology from the speculations of the Ancient Greeks to contemporary cognitive psychology. He also demonstrates the fashion in which different conceptions of human and animal psychology and behavior have become associated and disassociated over the centuries. Moving easily among psychology, history of science, physiology, and philosophy, Greenwood provides a critically challenging account of the development of psychology as a science. He relates the remarkable stories of the intellectual pioneers of modern psychology, while exploring the social and political milieu in which they operated, and dispels many of the myths of the history of psychology, based upon the best historical scholarship of recent decades. This is an impressive overview that will appeal to scholars and graduate students of the history of psychology.
Published August 2015

Relations and Representations: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Psychological Science
Psychology Press, 2015
Originally published in 1991, this lucid introduction to the philosophy of social psychological science takes a new and original approach to the subject. The author repudiates traditional empiricist and hermeneutical accounts, advancing instead a realist philosophy of social psychological science that maintains objectivity while at the same time stressing the social dimensions of mind and action.
The author provides novel perspectives on the problems and potential of those sciences concerned with human behaviours that are constituted as meaningful actions by their social relational, and representational dimensions. He focuses in particular on the social identity of human actions and psychological states, on the objectivity of theoretical description and causal explanation, and on the role of experimentation. This approach, aimed at reconciling our scientific interest with our human intuitions, results in a richer conception of social psychological theory and phenomena than was found in most contemporary theoretical accounts.
A stimulating and thought-provoking text, this title will still be of special value to students and teachers of psychology, sociology, anthropology and philosophy.
Published June 2015

Interactive Democracy: The Social Roots of Global Justice
4th Edition
How can we confront the problems of diminished democracy, pervasive economic inequality and persistent global poverty? Is it possible to fulfill the dual aims of deepening democratic participation and achieving economic justice, not only locally but also globally? Carol Gould proposes an integrative and interactive approach to the core values of democracy, justice and human rights, looking beyond traditional politics to the social conditions that would enable us to realize these aims. Her innovative philosophical framework sheds new light on social movements across borders, the prospects for empathy and solidarity with distant others, and the problem of gender inequalities in diverse cultures, and also considers new ways in which democratic deliberation can be enhanced by online networking and extended to the institutions of global governance. Her book will be of great interest to scholars and upper-level students of political philosophy, global justice, social and political science, and gender studies.
Published October 2014
Cambridge University Press, 2014

Forgiveness and Remembrance: Remembering Wrongdoing in Personal and Public Life
This book examines the complex moral psychology of forgiving, remembering, and forgetting in personal and political contexts. It challenges a number of entrenched ideas that pervade standard philosophical approaches to interpersonal forgiveness and offers an original account of its moral psychology and the emotions involved in it. The author also uses this account to illuminate the relationship of forgiveness to political reconciliation. Memory is another central concern that flows from this; in its political function, memory of wrongdoing-and of its victims-is embodied in processes of memorialization. Blustein examines the symbolism and the symbolic moral significance of memorialization as a political practice, reflects on its relationship to forgiveness, and, finally, argues that there are moral responsibilities associated with memorialization that belong to international actors as well as to states.
Published June 2014
Oxford University Press, 2014

The Great Ethics of Aristotle
In this follow-up to The Eudemian Ethics of Aristotle, Simpson centers his attention on the basics of Aristotelian moral doctrine as found in the Great Ethics: the definition of happiness, the nature and kind of the virtues, pleasure, and friendship. This work's authenticity is disputed, but Simpson argues that all the evidence favors it. Unlike the Nicomachean and Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle wrote the Great Ethics for a popular audience. For this reason, the Great Ethics has distinct advantages as an introduction to Aristotelian ethical thinking. The translation is prefaced by an analytic outline of the whole, and the several sections of it are prefaced by brief summaries. The commentary supplies fuller descriptions and analyses, sorting out puzzles, removing misunderstandings, and resolving doubts of meaning and intention. Peter L. P. Simpson (Prof., Staten Island) serves on the doctoral faculty in classics and philosophy.
Published April 2014
Transaction, 2014

Minerva's Night Out: Philosophy, Pop Culture, and Moving Pictures
The author addresses the philosophical aspects of popular films and pop culture in thought-provoking essays at the intersection of the popular and the profound. He ranges across the philosophy of Halloween to psychoanalysis and the horror film, from Vertigo and the pathologies of romantic love to Andy Kaufman and the philosophies of interpretation, with wit, insight, and serious engagement.
Published October 2013
Wiley-Blackwell, 2013

SAUL KRIPKE Reference and Existence: The John Locke Lectures
This collection of Kripke's John Locke Lectures for 1973 can be read as a sequel to his classic Naming and Necessity. It confronts important issues left open in that work, such as the semantics of proper names and natural kind terms (terms denoting object groupings that occur in nature) as they appear in fiction and in myth; negative existential statements; and the ontology of fiction and myth (whether it is true that fictional characters like Hamlet or mythical kinds like bandersnatches have an existence). In treating these questions, he makes a number of methodological observations that go beyond the framework of his earlier book-including the striking claim that fiction cannot provide a test for theories of reference and naming. In addition, these lectures provide a glimpse into the transition to the pragmatics of singular reference that dominated his influential paper "Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference"-a paper that helped reorient linguistic and philosophical semantics. Saul Kripke is a distinguished professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center.
Published May 2013
Oxford University Press, 2013

Polishing Your Prose: How to Turn First Drafts Into Finished Work
This singular book illustrates how to edit a piece of prose and enhance its clarity of thought and felicity of style. The authors first present ten principles of effective composition and then scrutinize three extended paragraphs, suggesting with remarkable specificity how to improve them. The volume also offers challenging practice questions, as well as two finished essays, one serious and one humorous, that demonstrate how attention to sound mechanics need not result in mechanical writing. The authors help readers deploy a host of corrective strategies, such as avoiding jargon, bombast, and redundancy; varying sentence structure; paring the use of adjectives and adverbs; properly deploying phrases and clauses; and refining an argument. Here is a book for all who seek to increase their facility in written communication. Steven M. Cahn (Prof., GC) serves on the doctoral faculty in philosophy and urban education.
Published March 2013
Columbia University Press, 2013

The Routledge Guidebook to Plato's Republic
The Routledge Guides to the Great Books
Newly revised under the Routledge Guides to the Great Books series, Pappas's volume introduces the major themes in Plato's great book, including his ideas on the nature of justice, order, and the character of the just individual. This companion for reading the work examines the context of Plato's work and the background to his writing; each separate part of the text in relation to its goals, meanings, and impact; the reception the book received when first seen by the world; and the relevance of Plato's work to modern philosophy. The new edition contains additions throughout and aims both to situate the Republic in its time and in the subsequent intellectual history of the West, and to spell out the main interpretive debates that surround the work today-such as that between deflationist and realist interpretations of Plato's theory of the soul.
Published January 2013
Routledge, 2013

OMAR DAHBOUR Self-Determination without Nationalism: A Theory of Postnational Sovereignty
(Global Ethics and Politics)
How do groups-be they religious or ethnic-achieve sovereignty in a postnationalist world? The author insists that the existing ethics of international relations, dominated by the rival notions of liberal nationalism and political cosmopolitanism, no longer suffice. While political communities are an ethically desirable and historically inevitable feature of collective life, the ethical principles that govern them require reformulation in light of globalization and the economic and environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. Arguing that nation-states violate the principle of self-determination, Dahbour develops a detailed new theory of self-determination that he calls "ecosovereignty." Ecosovereignty defines political community in a way that can protect and further the rights of indigenous peoples as well as the needs of ecological regions for a sustainable form of development and security from environmental destruction.
Published December 2012
Temple University Press, 2012

Beyond Human Nature: How Culture and Experience Shape the Human Mind
In this era of genome projects and brain scans, it is all too easy to overestimate the role of biology in human psychology. But in this passionate corrective to the idea that DNA is destiny, the author focuses on the most extraordinary aspect of human nature: that nurture can supplement and supplant nature, allowing our minds to be profoundly influenced by experience and culture. Drawing on cutting-edge research in neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology, Prinz shatters the myth of human uniformity and reveals how our differing cultures and life experiences make each of us unique. Along the way he shows that we can't blame mental illness or addiction on our genes, and that societal factors shape gender differences in cognitive ability and sexual behavior.
Published November 2012
W. W. Norton & Company, 2012

Reason, Religion, and Natural Law: From Plato to Spinoza
The contributors to this volume articulate diverse ways in which natural law has both been understood and related to theistic claims. In addition to exploring Plato and the Stoics, the volume also looks at medieval Jewish thought, the thought of Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham, and the ways in which Spinoza's thought includes resonances of earlier views and intimations of later developments.
Published October 2012
Oxford University Press, 2012

The Conscious Brain: How Attention Engenders Experience
(Philosophy of Mind)
Synthesizing decades of research, the author advances a new theory of the psychological and neurophysiological correlates of conscious experience. He makes two main claims: first, consciousness always arises at a particular stage of perceptual processing, the intermediate level; second, consciousness depends on attention. Attention changes the flow of information, allowing perceptual information to access memory systems. Neurobiologically, this change in flow depends on synchronized neural firing; neural synchrony is also implicated in the unity of consciousness and in the temporal duration of experience. Prinz also explores the limits of consciousness and concludes by discussing prevailing philosophical puzzles, providing a neuroscientifically grounded response to the leading argument for mind-body dualism and arguing that materialists need not choose between functional and neurobiological approaches but can combine them.
Published September 2012
Oxford University Press, 2012

Continuum Companion to Plato
This comprehensive and accessible guide to Plato's life and times includes more than 140 entries, written by a team of leading experts in the field of ancient philosophy, covering every aspect of Plato's thought. The volume presents details of Plato's life; historical, philosophical and literary context; synopses of all the dialogues attributed to Plato; a comprehensive overview of the various features, themes and topics apparent in the dialogues; and a thorough account of his enduring influence and the various interpretative approaches applied to his thought throughout the history of philosophy.
Published June 2012
Continuum, 2012

Philosophical Troubles: Collected Papers
This is the first of a series of volumes collecting the essential articles by the eminent and highly influential philosopher. The topics in this mixture of published and unpublished articles from various stages of Kripke's storied career range over epistemology, linguistics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, history of analytic philosophy, theory of truth, and metaphysics. Included here are seminal and much discussed pieces such as "Identity and Necessity," "Outline of a Theory of Truth," "Speaker's Reference and Semantic Reference," and "A Puzzle About Belief." Among more recent published articles are "Russell's Notion of Scope" and "Frege's Theory of Sense and Reference." Several older and newer works are published here for the first time, including "A Puzzle on Time and Thought," written expressly for this volume.
Published December 2011
Oxford University Press, 2011

Judaic Sources and Western Thought: Jerusalem's Enduring Presence
With contributions by ten scholars, this volume explores the significance and enduring relevance of Judiac roots and sources of important European and Western moral and political ideas and ideals. It focuses on the distinct character of Judaic thought concerning moral value, the individual human being, the nature of political order, and relations between human beings and between human beings and God. These are not essays in Jewish intellectual history; rather, their purpose is to clarify the conceptual resources, insights, and perspectives grounded in Judaic texts and thought. The essays speak to scholars and students in moral philosophy, religion, philosophy of religion, ethics, Jewish intellectual history, comparative religion, theology, and other areas.
Published October 2011
Oxford University Press, 2011

How Terrorism is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence
In a combination of new and previously published essays, Held examines the nature of terrorism and evaluates justifications for using violence, such as in self-defense or to enforce the rule of law. She addresses the connection between terrorism and humiliation and considers military intervention, conventional war, intervention to protect human rights, violence to prevent political change, and the status and requirements of international law. She looks at the cases of Rwanda, Kosovo, Iraq, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Finally, Held explores questions of who has legitimate authority to engage in justifiable uses of violence, whether groups can be responsible for ethnic violence, and how the media should cover terrorism.
Published March 2011
Oxford University Press, 2011

Philosophical Horizons: Introductory Readings
This volume introduces students to the central issues of philosophy through an engaging combination of classic and contemporary sources. Placing a premium on accessibility for today's beginning philosophy students, the editors have put together more than seventy nontechnical readings, many of which have been edited for maximum comprehensibility. Unlike any other introductory anthology of past and present readings, this text contains a dozen unabridged, fully annotated masterpieces from the history of philosophy, including Plato's "Euthyphro," "Apology," and "Crito," the "Encheiridion" of Epictetus, Descartes's "Meditations," Berkeley's "Treatise," Hume's "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion," Kant's "Groundwork," Mill's "Utilitarianism," James's "Will to Believe," and Sartre's "Humanism of Existentialism." By juxtaposing the work of historical and contemporary philosophers, the editors have emphasized both the timelessness and timeliness of philosophical inquiry.. Maureen Eckert (Philosophy, 2004) serves as associate professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
Published January 2011
Cengage Learning, 2011

Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will
In 1962, the philosopher Richard Taylor used six commonly accepted presuppositions to imply that human beings have no control over the future. David Foster Wallace not only took issue with Taylor's method, contending that it scrambled the relations of logic, language, and the physical world, but also noted a semantic trick at the heart of Taylor's argument. Written long before the publication of his fiction and essays, Wallace's thesis reveals his great skepticism of abstract thinking made to function as a negation of something more genuine and real. As Wallace rises to meet the challenge to free will presented by Taylor, we witness the developing perspective of this major novelist, along with his struggle to establish solid logical ground for his convictions. This edited volume reproduces Taylor's original article and other works on fatalism cited by Wallace. Maureen Eckert (Ph.D., Philosophy, 2004) was his student and now serves as associate professor of philosophy at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.
Published December 2010
Columbia University Press, 2010

Saints and Scamps: Ethics in Academia
25th Anniverssary Edition
In this 25th anniversary edition, Cahn has updated and expanded upon his critical look at the duties and responsibilities of college professors, presenting us with a masterfully decisive and learned probe into the ethical standards and practices of the academic world. Cahn discusses issues from grades to degree requirements and from tenure to the ethics of teaching, and criticizes graduate programs for failing to teach doctoral students how to teach. He demonstrates what makes a wonderful professor and what constitutes professorial malpractice. This is not just a book for college professors, but a book that should be read by parents, students, school administrators, and anyone interested in what teachers do and how they should do it.
Published October 2010
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010

Exploring Ethics: An Introductory Anthology
2nd Edition
This anthology is a remarkably accessible, concise, and engaging introduction to moral philosophy. The editors bring together a rich, balanced, and wide-ranging collection of forty classic and contemporary readings, edited to be exceptionally clear and understandable to undergraduate students. The selections are organized into three parts: Challenges to Morality, Moral Theories, and Moral Problems. The third part presents the current debates over abortion, euthanasia, famine relief, terrorism, torture, affirmative action, animal rights, and the environment, and concludes with essays on death and the meaning of life. Each reading is preceded by a detailed introduction and followed by study questions that encourage students to think philosophically. The second edition features eight new selections by Plato, Virginia Held, Daniel Hill, Rosalind Hursthouse, Thomas Nagel, Henry Shue, Elliott Sober, and Richard Taylor.
Published October 2010
Oxford University Press, 2010

Thinking about Logic: Classic Essays
This accessible and thought-provoking collection of classic articles illuminates how logic relates to perennial philosophical issues about knowledge, meaning, rationality, and reality. The editors have selected each essay for its brevity, clarity, and impact and have included insightful introductions and discussion questions. The puzzles raised will help readers acquire a more thorough understanding of fundamental logic concepts and a firmer command of the connections between formal logic and other areas of philosophical study: epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and metaphysics. Robert B. Talisse (Philosophy, 2001) serves as associate professor of philosophy and political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Published August 2010
Routledge, 2010

Set Theory and the Continuum Problem
Revised and updated from the 1996 edition, this volume is a lucid, elegant, and complete survey of set theory drawn from the authors' substantial teaching experience. The book is intended to provide the reader with a complete foundation in modern set theory, explaining how the subject is axiomatized and the role of the axiom of choice, and elucidating ordinal and cardinal numbers, constructible sets, and forcing. The first of three parts focuses on axiomatic set theory, examining problems related to size comparisons between infinite sets, basics of class theory, and natural numbers, as well as Smullyan's double induction principle, super induction, ordinal numbers, order isomorphism and transfinite recursion, and the axiom of foundation and cardinals. The second part addresses Mostowski-Shepherdson mappings, reflection principles, constructible sets and constructibility, and the continuum hypothesis. The text concludes with an extensive exploration of forcing and independence results.
Published April 2010
Dover, 2010

Political Problems
History, theory, and political problems are the three pillars of the political philosophy course. However, while the anthologies on the history of political philosophy are numerous, there are relatively few sources (and even fewer single sources) that focus on contemporary political problems. This book fills that gap, presenting the leading contemporary positions on school vouchers, government support for the arts, pornography, same-sex marriage, drug legalization, gun control, terrorism, torture, capital punishment, affirmative action, immigration, and the environment. Each subject is addressed by a pair of essays, leaving the reader to decide which side has the stronger arguments. The anthology is intended to be paired with any of the readers that are dedicated to the history of political philosophy. Robert B. Talisse (Philosophy, 2001) serves as associate professor of philosophy and political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Published February 2010
Routledge, 2010

Political Philosophy: The Essential Texts
2nd Edition
Greatly expanded in its second edition, Political Philosophy is ideal for survey courses in social and political philosophy. This historically organized collection presents the most significant works from nearly 2,500 years of political philosophy. It moves from classical thought (Plato, Aristotle) through the medieval period (Augustine, Aquinas) to modern perspectives (Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Smith, Hamilton and Madison, Kant). New to the second edition are essays and addresses by Charles Taylor, Virginia Held, Edmund Burke, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, among others. This edition also presents a variety of notable documents and addresses, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The works of each author are introduced with an engaging essay by a leading contemporary authority.
Published January 2010
Oxford University Press, 2010

Constructing the Nation: A Race and Nationalism Reader
This volume collects theoretical analyses that address the racial issues of U.S. nationalism. Since the events of 9/11, the invocation of a united "American" identity has implicit specifications of race, ethnicity, culture of origin, and religion. This collection of essays offers a philosophical response to, and rumination on, the political and cultural context of xenophobia and the rhetoric of freedom, homeland, and unity.
Published October 2009
SUNY Press, 2009

St. Paul among the Philosophers
(Philosophy of Religion)
In his epistles, St. Paul expounded a philosophy that posited the universality of truth, the conviction that what is true is true for everyone, and the idea that the truth should be known by all. Recently, secular philosophers who regard his project as centrally important for contemporary political life have returned to his teachings. In a scholarly dialogue that ushers in a new generation of Pauline studies, eminent New Testament scholars, historians, and philosophers debate the philosophical undercurrents of Paul's message
Published July 2009
Indiana University Press, 2009

Philosophy in The Twilight Zone
Utilizing a series of essays that examine the broad philosophical concepts embedded in Rod Serling's series, The Twilight Zone, this book provides a platform for further philosophical discussion. Eminent contemporary philosophers review the show's over-arching themes and discuss of particular episodes. Philosophy in The Twilight Zone fuses popular cult entertainment with classical philosophical perspectives to unearth larger questions-from human nature to the nature of reality and beyond-that are posed in the series. Also included is substantial critical and biographical information on series creator Rob Serling.
Published May 2009
Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

The Poetics, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of Narrative
The first in a new series of books published in association with the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Noël Carroll's The Poetics, Aesthetics and Philosophy of Narrative is the first study of the philosophy of narrative in the analytic tradition. Through the examination of various narrative art forms, including painting and comics, Carroll brings together eleven articles that explore narrative, metaphysics and epistemology, character, and emotion.
Published February 2009
Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

Philosophy of Education: The Essential Texts
Philosophy of education is a study both of the aims of education and the most appropriate means of achieving them. This volume contains substantial selections from those works widely regarded as central to the development of the field. The text is historically organized, moving from classical thought (Plato, Aristotle), through the medieval period (Augustine), to modern perspectives (Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft), and twentieth-century thinkers (Whitehead, Dewey). Each selection is followed by an extended interpretative essay in which a noted contemporary authority highlights essential points from the readings and places them in a wider context. Exhibiting breadth and depth, Philosophy of Education: The Essential Texts is an ideal reader for courses in philosophy of education, foundations of education, and the history of ideas.
Published January 2009
Routledge, 2009

Aiming at Virtue in Plato
This innovative study of Plato's ethics focuses on the concept of virtue. Based on detailed readings of the most prominent Platonic dialogues on virtue, the author argues that there is a central yet previously unnoticed conceptual distinction in Plato between the idea of virtue as the supreme aim of one's actions and the determination of which action-tokens or -types are virtuous. Appreciating the aiming/determining distinction" provides detailed and mutually consistent readings of the most well-known Platonic dialogues on virtue as well as original interpretations of central Platonic questions. Unlike most examinations of Plato's ethics, this study does not take as its centerpiece the "eudaimonist framework," which focuses on the relationship between virtue and happiness. Instead Aiming at Virtue argues that the dialogues themselves begin with the idea of the supremacy of virtue, examine how that claim can be defended, and address how to determine what constitutes the virtuous action.
Published December 2008
Cambridge University Press, 2008

Ideal Embodiment: Kant's Theory of Sensibility
(Studies in Continental Thought)
In this penetrating book, Angelica Nuzzo offers a comprehensive reconstruction of Kant's theory of sensibility in his three Critiques. By introducing the notion of 'transcendental embodiment,' Nuzzo proposes a new understanding of Kant's views on science, nature, morality, and art. She shows how Kant coherently addresses the issue of human embodiment and how understanding this is key to comprehending vexing issues in Kant's work. Nuzzo takes on questions Kant struggled with: How does a body that feels pleasure and pain, desire, anger, and fear understand and experience reason and strive toward knowledge? What grounds the body's experience of art and beauty? What kind of feeling is the feeling of being alive? As she comes to grips with these questions, Nuzzo goes beyond Kant to revise our view of embodiment and the essential conditions of human experience.
Published October 2008
Indiana University Press, 2008

On Criticism (Thinking in Action)
Seventy-five percent of art critics recently reported in a poll that critically assessing works of art is the least meaningful part of their profession. But Noël Carroll claims, in his new book, that judging the value of art should instead be their prime concern. Whereas theoretical campaigns and merely adjectival appraisals should take a back seat, he argues, all critics must address the question of any artist's intentions. His humanistic perspective here takes stock of visual art, literature, and performing arts to restore the primacy of criticism and critics. =
Published October 2008
Routledge, 2008

Conceptual History of Psychology
This book explores in great depth the conceptual continuities and discontinuities that inform the history of thought about human psychology and behavior, from the speculations of the ancient Greeks to contemporary scientific psychology. Greenwood provides an engaging and stimulating analysis of the critical ideas and movements that have shaped the development of scientific psychology, including changing conceptions of the nature of science. Combining a clear and engaging writing style with a critically challenging account of the conceptual history of psychology, the author seamlessly weaves together complex ideas, movements and biographical detail to provide an exciting, detailed and comprehensive account of the historical development of psychological thought and science. The first history of psychology to stimulate students to think critically about the conceptual contours of the history of their discipline, the book also includes separate histories of the development of abnormal, clinical, social and developmental psychology.
Published June 2008
McGraw-Hill Education, 2008

Ethics and Criminal Justice: An Introduction
This textbook looks at the main ethical questions that confront the criminal justice system - legislature, law enforcement, courts, and corrections-and those who work within that system, especially police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges, juries, and prison officers. John Kleinig sets the issues in the context of a liberal democratic society and its ethical and legislative underpinnings, and illustrates them with a wide and international range of real-life case studies. Topics covered include discretion, capital punishment, terrorism, restorative justice, and re-entry. Kleinig's discussion is both philosophically acute and grounded in institutional realities, and will enable students to engage productively with the ethical questions which they encounter both now and in the future-whether as criminal justice professionals or as reflective citizens. The book is ideal for applied philosophy and criminal justice ethics courses.
Published March 2008
Cambridge University Press, 2008

Exploring Ethics: An Introductory Anthology
51148th edition
Exploring Ethics: An Introductory Anthology brings together a wide-ranging collection of forty classic and contemporary readings from Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Thomas Nagel, James Rachels, John Rawls, Tom Regan, Peter Singer, Susan Wolf, and others. The selections are organized into three parts: "Challenges to Morality" considers the overly simple assumptions that beginning students may bring to moral issues; "Moral Theories" provides selections from the most influential ethical theories of the past along with commentary by contemporary thinkers; "Moral Problems" offers opposing perspectives on nine controversial issues: abortion, euthanasia, world hunger, terrorism, pornography, affirmative action, animal rights, the environment, and capital punishment. Each reading is preceded by a detailed introduction and followed by study questions that encourage students to think philosophically.
Published February 2008
Oxford University Press, 2008

Exploring Philosophy of Religion: An Introductory Anthology
Exploring Philosophy of Religion: An Introductory Anthology features a collection of fifty-two classic and contemporary readings from Augustine, Anselm, Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas, David Hume, William James, John H. Hick, Alvin Plantinga, William Alston, Richard Swinburne, and others. Organized topically, the volume covers seven major areas: the concept of God, the existence of God, religious language, miracles and mysticism, belief in God, resurrection and immortality, and religious pluralism. Each reading is preceded by a detailed introduction and is enhanced by explanatory notes. In addition, the text includes an appendix to Cahn's provocative and illuminating overview of the field-"God, Reason, and Religion"-which provides a synthesis and interpretation of the key issues raised in the readings.
Published February 2008
Oxford University Press, 2008

The Elements of Philosophy: Readings from Past and Present
This introductory anthology is a comprehensive collection of historical and contemporary readings across the major fields of philosophy, from two thousand five-hundred years ago to just a few years ago. The editors offer an extensive and expansive selection of readings that includes whole works or excerpts from such classic thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Blaise Pascal, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill and such contemporary thinkers as Noam Chomsky, Thomas Nagel, Robert Nozick, Derek Parfit, and Hilary Putnam. The selections are organized topically into five parts: Religion and Belief, Moral and Political Philosophy, Metaphysics and Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind and Language, and Life and Death. The product of the collaboration of three highly respected scholars in their fields, The Elements of Philosophy also includes introductions from the editors, explanatory footnotes, and a glossary.
Published December 2007
Oxford University Press, 2007

Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed
It is widely agreed that Plato laid the foundations for the whole history of western thought and, well over 2000 years later, his work is still studied by every student of philosophy. This volume is a clear and thorough account of his philosophy, his major works and ideas, and provides an ideal guide to the important and complex thought of this key philosopher. The book offers a detailed review of all the major dialogues and explores the particular perplexities of the dialogue form. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Plato's thought, the book also provides a cogent and reliable survey of the whole history of Platonic interpretation and Plato’s far-reaching influence. This is the ideal companion to the study of this most influential and challenging of philosophers. Gerald Press is a professor of philosophy at Hunter College and the Graduate Center.
Published December 2007
Continuum, 2007

Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy
This highly anticipated anthology, compiled by noted author and scholar Steven Cahn, presents in their entirety the seven major works central to any introductory philosophy course: Plato, Meno; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Bks. I, II); Descartes, Meditations; Berkeley, Three Dialogues; Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; Kant, Fundamental Principles; and Mill, Utilitarianism. Each work has had a profound influence on philosophical thought, and the authors are generally regarded as among the world's greatest philosophers. The translations are among the most well-respected and admired translations of those works, including the Cottingham translation of Descartes and the Ostwald translation of Aristotle. Each work is introduced and annotated throughout by the editor. The book's brevity and low price allow instructors to easily build the course they want around it, assigning additional books that touch upon their personal favorites.
Published December 2007
Routledge, 2007

The Meaning of Life: A Reader
3rd Edition
Featuring nine new articles chosen by coeditor Steven M. Cahn, this third edition of The Meaning of Life offers twenty-two insightful selections that explore this fascinating topic. The essays are primarily by philosophers but also include materials from literary figures and religious thinkers. As in previous editions, the readings are organized around three themes. In Part I the articles defend the view that without faith in God, life has no meaning or purpose. In Part II the selections oppose this claim, defending instead a nontheistic, humanistic alternative-that life can have meaning even in the absence of theistic commitment. In Part III the contributors ask whether the question of the meaning of life is itself meaningful. This unique anthology is ideal for students and the general reader who is looking for an accessible and stimulating introduction to the subject.
Published October 2007
Oxford University Press, 2007

Classics of Western Philosophy
7th Edition
For more than a generation this anthology has informed the philosophical education of students, educators, and a larger non-academic public. It contains the complete texts or substantial selections from fifty-seven philosophical masterpieces, representing thirty-three of the world’s greatest philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to Wittgenstein and Sartre. Those texts not originally written in English are included in readable translations crafted to the highest standards of contemporary scholarship. An introduction to each author by a noted authority in the field offers biographical data, philosophical commentary, and bibliographical guides. Annotations are provided to clarify textual references. This seventh edition adds selections from Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, Plotinus' Enneads, Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation, Husserl's Paris Lectures, and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. The readings from Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics and Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit have been expanded, while selections from Hobbes' Leviathan, Mill's On Liberty, and Russell's The Problems of Philosophy have been reedited.
Published June 2007
Hackett Publishing Company, 2007

Happiness: Classic and Contemporary Readings in Philosophy
Happiness has long been a focus of attention for philosophers as well as psychologists. This volume, the only collection devoted to the subject from the standpoint of philosophy, offers twenty-seven classic and contemporary readings exploring the nature of happiness. Part I, a survey of the ways happiness has been treated throughout the history of ethics, includes writings by Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Seneca, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, Joseph Butler, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, John Stuart Mill, Henry Sidgwick, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Part II explores the work of contemporary ethical theorists, including Julia Annas, John Kekes, Richard Kraut, Robert Nozick, and Richard Taylor. The volume also includes an introduction by psychologist Daniel Nettle, headnotes for each selection, and essays by the editors. Ideal for ethics courses, Happiness: Classic and Contemporary Readings can also be used in introductory courses in philosophy and positive psychology.
Published March 2007
Oxford University Press, 2007

Incompleteness in the Land of Sets
This book gives a full presentation of the basic incompleteness and undecidability theorems of mathematical logic in the framework of set theory. Corresponding results for arithmetic follow easily, and are also given. Gödel numbering is generally avoided, except when an explicit connection is made between set theory and arithmetic. The book assumes little technical background from the reader. One needs mathematical ability, a general familiarity with formal logic, and an understanding of the completeness theorem, though not its proof. All else is developed and formally proved, from Tarski's Theorem to Gödel's Second Incompleteness Theorem. Exercises are scattered throughout.
Published February 2007
College Publications, 2007

The Blackwell Guide to Medical Ethics
The Blackwell Guide to Medical Ethics, a guide to the complex literature written on the increasingly dense topic of ethics in relation to the new technologies of medicine, examines the key ethical issues and debates which have resulted from the rapid advances in biomedical technology; brings together leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, medicine, theology and law, to discuss these issues; and tackles such topics as ending life, patient choice, selling body parts, resourcing, and confidentiality. The guide has a coherent structure that differentiates between the decisions of individuals and those of social policy.
Published January 2007
Wiley-Blackwell, 2007

Logic at the Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary View
The "First Indian Conference on Logic and its Relationship with Other Disciplines" took place in Mumbai at IIT Bombay, from January 8 to 12, 2005. Tutorials as well as advanced talks were given by Indian logicians and by visitors from Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, the USA, and other nations. Talks ranged from reflections on the range of mathematical proof and definability; to recent developments in computational logic; to new interfaces between logic, information dynamics, and games; to presentations on schools of Indian logic. One term used nowadays for this broad view of logic is "intelligent interaction." The Mumbai Conference took this term in the double sense of both information exchange and community formation, and indeed both processes were in evidence. The current volume contains a representative selection of material from that conference.
Published January 2007
Mumbai, Delhi, and other locations: Allied Publishers, 2007

Ignorance of Language
Is the Chomskian revolution in linguistics right about the mind? What is linguistics about? What role should linguistic intuitions play in constructing grammars? What is innate about language? Is there a language faculty"? Ignorance of Language gives some decidedly un-Chomskian answers to such questions: that linguistics is about linguistic reality and not part of psychology; that linguistic rules are not represented in the mind; that speakers are largely ignorant of their language; that speakers' intuitions do not reflect information supplied by the language faculty and are not the main evidence for grammars; that linguistics should be concerned with what idiolects share, not with idiolects; that language processing is a fairly brute-causal associationist matter; that the rules of "Universal Grammar" are largely, if not entirely, innate structure rules of thought; indeed, that there is little or nothing to the language faculty.
Published June 2006
Oxford University Press, 2006

Moral Animals: Ideals and Constraints in Moral Theory
This original new theory of morality and human nature draws on philosophy, anthropology, evolutionary theory, and psychology, and is informed by a deep commitment to human well-being and equality. The author bases her theory on two fundamental premises: first, that moral progress implies the evolution of moral ideals involving restraint and sacrifice; second, that human beings are outfitted by nature with selfish motivations, intentions, and ambitions that place constraints on what morality can demand of them. She argues that social justice with respect to global disparities in well-being, and in the condition of women relative to men, depends on the relinquishment of natural and acquired advantage that is central to the concept of morality.
Published September 2004
Oxford University Press, 2004

The Disappearance of the Social in American Social Psychology
Cambridge University Press, 2003
In his critical history of American social psychology, John Greenwood reviews the original conception of the social dimensions of cognition, emotion and behavior, and of the discipline of social psychology itself, as embraced by early twentieth century American social psychologists. He documents how the once broadly defined conception of social psychological phenomena came to be progressively neglected as the century developed, till hardly any trace of the original conception of the "social" remains in contemporary American psychology.
Published November 2003

The Mark of the Social: Discovery or Intervention?
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997
Behavior, language, development, identity, and science—all of these phenomena are commonly characterized as 'social' in nature. But what does it mean to be 'social'? Is there any intrinsic 'mark' of the social shared by these phenomena? In the first book to shed light on this foundational question, twelve distinguished philosophers and social scientists from several disciplines debate the mark of the social. Their varied answers will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, psychologists, and anyone interested in the theoretical foundations of the social sciences.
Published January 1997

Realism, Identity and Emotion: Reclaiming Social Psychology
SAGE Publications, 1994
An exciting challenge to social psychology, this volume advances a realist interpretation of psychological theories that surmounts the problems of traditional empiricist accounts and repudiates the relativism of more recent social constructionist critiques. The author demonstrates that realism offers many more theoretical possibilities than are recognized by these two alternatives.
The book illustrates that a realist account is entirely compatible with theories of the social dimensions of mind. Greenwood develops an original theory of the intrinsically social dimensions of identity and emotion; he documents many areas that have been neglected by both empiricist and constructionist accounts, and demonstrates that the social dimensions of identity and emotion pose no threat to the objectivity or empirical evaluation of psychological theories of identity and emotion.
Published May 1994

The Future of Folk Psychology: Intentionality and Cognitive Science
The essays in this volume are concerned with our everyday and developed scientific systems of explanation of human behavior in terms of beliefs, attitudes, memories, and the like. The volume provides an introduction to the lively contemporary debate about the status and theoretical viability of such forms of "folk-psychological" explanation, in the light of recent developments in neurobiology and cognitive science. It can be used as a textbook for advanced courses in the philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive science.
Published October 1991