• Spinoza as natural lawyer
    In Andre Santos Campos (ed.), Spinoza and Law, Routledge. 2015.
  •  103
    Animal rights and souls in the eighteenth century (edited book)
    with Richard Dean, Humphrey Primatt, John Oswald, and Thomas Young
    Thoemmes Press. 1713.
    The publication of 'Animal Rights and Souls in the 18th Century' will be welcomed by everyone interested in the development of the modern animal liberation movement, as well as by those who simply want to savour the work of enlightenment thinkers pushing back the boundaries of both science and ethics. At last these long out-of-print texts are again available to be read and enjoyed - and what texts they are! Gems like Bougeant's witty reductio of the Christian view of animals are included togethe…Read more
  • Adam Smith : history and impartiality
    In Aaron Garrett & James Harris (eds.), Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Oxford University Press. 2015.
  • Moral philosophy : practical and speculative
    In Aaron Garrett & James Harris (eds.), Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Oxford University Press. 2015.
  • A History of Scottish Philosophy is a series of collaborative studies by expert authors, each volume being devoted to a specific period. Together they provide a comprehensive account of the Scottish philosophical tradition, from the centuries that laid the foundation of the remarkable burst of intellectual fertility known as the Scottish Enlightenment, through the Victorian age and beyond, when it continued to exercise powerful intellectual influence at home and abroad. The books aim to be histo…Read more
  •  32
    The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Critical Study
    Philosophical Review 123 (4): 533-541. 2014.
  •  31
    Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes
    Philosophical Review 108 (2): 288. 1999.
    In this important new book, Quentin Skinner shows us, with rare precision and eloquence, a world with which we are undoubtedly far less familiar than he, that of humanist rhetoric, and uses his deep knowledge of it to illuminate the recesses of a thinker with whom we feel we are all too familiar. In so doing he opens our eyes to different ways of thinking about early modern political philosophy and provides us with a Hobbes quite different from the one we thought we knew, and the context in whic…Read more
  •  70
    Bell's theorem, inference, and quantum transactions
    Foundations of Physics 20 (4): 381-402. 1990.
    Bell's theorem is expounded as an analysis in Bayesian inference. Assuming the result of a spin measurement on a particle is governed by a causal variable internal (hidden, “local”) to the particle, one learns about it by making a spin measurement; thence about the internal variable of a second particle correlated with the first; and from there predicts the probabilistic result of spin measurements on the second particle. Such predictions are violated by experiment: locality/causality fails. The…Read more
  •  97
    Bell's theorem and Bayes' theorem
    Foundations of Physics 20 (12): 1475-1512. 1990.
    Bell's theorem is expounded as an analysis in Bayesian probabilistic inference. Assume that the result of a spin measurement on a spin-1/2 particle is governed by a variable internal to the particle (local, “hidden”), and examine pairs of particles having zero combined angular momentum so that their internal variables are correlated: knowing something about the internal variable of one tells us something about that of the other. By measuring the spin of one particle, we infer something about its…Read more
  •  1
    Adam Smith über den Zufall als moralisches Problem
    In Hans-Peter Schütt & Christel Fricke (eds.), Adam Smith als Moralphilosoph, Berlin/new York. pp. 160-177. 2005.
  •  22
    Spinoza on Learning to Live Together, by Susan James
    Mind 132 (525): 288-295. 2023.
    Spinoza on Learning to Live Together is a collection of nine of Susan James’ previously published papers alongside four more essays published for the first time.
  •  26
    Self-love was a pivotal topic of debate for moral philosophers in the first half of the eighteenth century. But, as was also the case for related concepts like sociability and virtue, philosophers meant many different things by ‘self-love.’ The historians of philosophy who discuss self-love often do as well. A great virtue of Christian Maurer’s Self-Love, Egoism, and the Selfish Hypothesis is to disambiguate five senses of self-love in eighteenth-century discussions. ‘Self-love’ and its synonyms…Read more
  •  10
    Leviathan (review)
    Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 18 (1): 277-282. 1995.
    Edwin Curley opens the “Introduction” of his new edition of Leviathan with the following assertion: “Hobbes has suffered a fate shared by many classic authors. His greatest work is more often quoted then carefully and thoroughly read.” Hobbes, it seems, has suffered additional indignities that many classic authors have not. A critical edition is underway which will be published by Clarendon Press at Oxford. So far, the Latin and English versions of De Cive have appeared. Before this undertaking,…Read more
  •  13
    Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I: Morals, Politics, Art, Religion (edited book)
    with James Anthony Harris
    Oxford University Press. 2015.
    This new history of Scottish philosophy will include two volumes that focus on the Scottish Enlightenment. In this volume a team of leading experts explore the ideas, intellectual context, and influence of Hutcheson, Hume, Smith, Reid, and many other thinkers, frame old issues in fresh ways, and introduce new topics and questions into debates about the philosophy of this remarkable period. The contributors explore the distinctively Scottish context of this philosophical flourishing, and juxtapos…Read more
  •  3
    Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century: Volume I: Moral and Political Thought (edited book)
    with James Anthony Harris
    Oxford University Press UK. 2015.
    This new history of Scottish philosophy will include two volumes that focus on the Scottish Enlightenment. In this volume a team of leading experts explore the ideas, intellectual context, and influence of Hutcheson, Hume, Smith, Reid, and many other thinkers, frame old issues in fresh ways, and introduce new topics and questions into debates about the philosophy of this remarkable period. The contributors explore the distinctively Scottish context of this philosophical flourishing, and juxtapos…Read more
  •  6
    Introduction
    History of European Ideas 42 (2): 167-169. 2016.
  •  13
    Adam Smith
    In Aaron Garrett & James Anthony Harris (eds.), Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I: Morals, Politics, Art, Religion, Oxford University Press. 2015.
    This chapter provides an overview of the philosophy of Adam Smith by examining the place of history and the role of impartiality in his philosophy. A brief introduction to Smith and his writings is followed by discussions of impartiality and Smith’s engagement with the philosophical role of history and the historian. The section that follows focuses on Smith’s discussion of rights as providing a connection between his moral theory and history via the role of the impartial spectator. The chapter …Read more
  •  3
    Moral Philosophy
    In Aaron Garrett & James Anthony Harris (eds.), Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I: Morals, Politics, Art, Religion, Oxford University Press. 2015.
    This chapter presents a general account of the speculative and practical moral philosophy of eighteenth-century Scotland. It gives particular attention to three topics: the Scottish insistence that moral philosophy is an empirical, or ‘experimental’, science, grounded in what might now be called a phenomenology of the moral life, and intimately connected with the other elements of the ‘science of man’; the project of combining Hutchesonian moral sense theory with a Butlerian faculty of conscienc…Read more
  •  2
    Introduction
    In Aaron Garrett & James Anthony Harris (eds.), Scottish Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I: Morals, Politics, Art, Religion, Oxford University Press. 2015.
    This introductory chapter provides an overview of the main themes covered in the present volume. It highlights the interdisciplinary approach taken in the choice of contributors to the volume which it is hoped will result in new perspectives on the philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment. The chapter notes that the contributors approach Hutcheson, Hume, Smith, and Reid from new points of view, and other important figures and philosophical themes are discussed in terms of their contributions to …Read more
  •  58
    Meaning in Spinoza’s Method
    Cambridge University Press. 2003.
    Readers of Spinoza's philosophy have often been daunted, and sometimes been enchanted, by the geometrical method which he employs in his philosophical masterpiece the Ethics. In Meaning in Spinoza's Method Aaron Garrett examines this method and suggests that its purpose, in Spinoza's view, was not just to present claims and propositions but also in some sense to change the readers and allow them to look at themselves and the world in a different way. His discussion draws not only on Spinoza's wo…Read more
  • The Lives of the Philosophers
    Jahrbuch für Recht Und Ethik 12 41-56. 2004.
    A consideration of the role that the idealized lives of the founders of philosophical schools play in moral philosophy and of changes that the roles underwent in the 17th century.
  •  2
    Ratio Faciens: Method, Act, and Cause in Spinoza's "Ethics"
    Dissertation, New School for Social Research. 1997.
    This dissertation sets out to discuss some features of Spinoza's concepts of conatus and causation, through a discussion of the overall structure of the Ethics. ;The major portion of the dissertation is devoted to Spinoza's method, as employed in the Ethics, the notorious geometric method. I argue against the traditional reading of the method as a simple geometric device, and for a position which emphasizes how the method itself leads the reader to come to the highest kinds of knowledge. This is…Read more
  •  17
    Forum: The idea of the self
    Modern Intellectual History 3 (2): 299-304. 2006.
    The following comments and response were presented at a symposium on Jerrold Seigel's TheIdeaoftheSelf:ThoughtandExperienceinWesternEuropesincetheSeventeenthCentury (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), held at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University, on 14 October 2005. The symposium was organized by David Armitage, Peter Gordon and Judith Surkis and was sponsored by the CES's Colloquia in Intellectual and Cultural History
  •  24
    Leviathan (review)
    Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 18 (1): 277-282. 1995.
    Edwin Curley opens the “Introduction” of his new edition of Leviathan with the following assertion: “Hobbes has suffered a fate shared by many classic authors. His greatest work is more often quoted then carefully and thoroughly read.” Hobbes, it seems, has suffered additional indignities that many classic authors have not. A critical edition is underway which will be published by Clarendon Press at Oxford. So far, the Latin and English versions of De Cive have appeared. Before this undertaking,…Read more
  •  149
    Hume's Revised Racism Revisited
    Hume Studies 26 (1): 171-177. 2000.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Hume Studies Volume XXVI, Number 1, April 2000, pp. 171-177 Hume's Revised Racism Revisited AARON GARRETT John Immerwahr's brief note "Hume's Revised Racism" is doubtless one of the most intriguing recent discussions of Hume and racism.1 Immerwahr presents a thesis as to why Hume revised a footnote originally added to his essay "Of National Characters" (hereafter "ONC") in 1753. In this note I will examine and dispute Immerwahr's the…Read more
  •  42
    The Library of Scottish Philosophy: Volumes 1 – 6, Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2004 James Otteson , ed. Adam Smith: Selected Philosophical Writings, 247pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 184540-001-1 James Harris , ed. James Beattie: Selected Philosophical Writings, 204pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 0907845-711 David Boucher , ed. The Scottish Idealists: Selected Philosophical Writings, 201pp. Paperback £12.95. ISBN 0907845-72X Jonathan Friday , ed. Art and Enlightenment: Scottish Aesthetics in the 18th centu…Read more