Thursday, March 5, 2009

Book Reviews: Hume, Hegel, Thompson

Here are three book reviews I thought readers might find interesting:

Frederick C. Beiser (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Henry E. Allison, Custom and Reason in Hume: A Kantian Reading of the First Book of the Treatise, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Michael Thompson, Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought, Harvard University Press, 2008.

If you are not familiar with Thompson yet, his work claims to take up a logical treatment of the concept of life in a manner meant to capture, to some extent, the spirit of Hegel's own reflections on life. Thompson's work on life, action, and practice has caused some strong reactions, ranging from the skeptical to the over zealous. In part this is due to his intention to establish some a priori status for concepts like life and life-form. I'm sure we can expect some intersting responses to his work in the years to come.

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