HOBBES, Thomas.
TP + [i]-[ii] = Dedication + 1-365 + [366]-[368] = Index Capitum + [369]-[378] = Index + [379] = Scripturæ Sacræ & Erratum + 1 blank leaf, small Quarto. First Separate Latin Edition (MacDonald & Hargreaves #45). The Important First Separate Latin Edition of Leviathan with all of Hobbes' Final RevisionsThis is the first separate edition of this book (M&H #45) from 1670. This Latin text first appeared two years earlier in the Opera Philosophica also published by Joannem Blaeu (M&H #104) which contained eight different works by Hobbes. During an age when English was little spoken and rarely read across the Channel, this Latin version is tremendously significant because it made Hobbes' most important and controversial work (first published in 1651) finally accessible to European readers. This Latin edition was, then, essential to the dissemination and understanding of Hobbes' ideas within the scholarly community of his day. Over and above that important distinction, this volume contains an entirely new Appendix - presented in a "Question & Answer" format - with sections devoted to the Nicene Creed, to Heresy and Replies to Objections. Moreover, as MacDonald and Hargreaves note in their Addendum, "The Latin version of Leviathan differs considerably from the English: it is the Latin versions in which Hobbes really expressed his opinions In his Latin version he was less concerned with personalities" (M&H, p. xvi). Contemporary full calf binding with five raised bands and a red field with gilt lettering for title and author to the spine. The corners and edges are all pretty uniformly worn, but this is a sound and solid binding. Overall, a lovely copy of this important work by Hobbes and his major contribution to what Johnathan Israel has termed The Radical Enlightenment. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
HEIDEGGER, Martin.
TP + [i] = Dedication page + [iii] = Inhalt + [v] = Vorbemerkung + 1-[175], Octavo. First Edition."For an acquaintance with the thought of Heidegger, What Is Called Thinking? is as important as Being and Time. It is the only systematic presentation of the thinker's late philosophy and . . . it is perhaps the most exciting of his books." (Hannah Arendt)From the Introduction:We come to know what it means to think when we ourselves try to think. If the attempt is to be successful, we must be ready to learn thinking.As soon as we allow ourselves to become involved in such learning, we have admitted that we are not yet capable of thinking.Yet man is called the being who can think, and rightly so. Man is the rational animal. Reason, ratio, evolves in thinking. Being the rational animal, man must be capable of thinking if he really wants to. Still, it may be that man wants to think, but can't. Perhaps he wants too much when he wants to think, and so can do too little. Publisher's original dust jacket with brown lettering to the front cover and the spine over the original brown boards with gilt lettering on the spine. An immaculate, almost "as new" copy of this important work by Heidegger. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb.
TP + [1]-182, Octavo. First Edition, First Issue. (Lauth/Jacob 2a; Baumgartner/Jacobs A1.2?x)First Edition of Fichte's First Book - Popularly Attributed to Kant as his Fourth CritikFichte's first work, which was published anonymously. With the title-vignette by Johann Wilhelm Meil. The first printing of the first edition appeared without the author's name on the title page and without the introduction. Fichte was impressed by Kant and strongly influenced by his transcendental philosophy. He went to meet the great philosopher in person but was initially received very cooly. In response, he wrote the present work in five short weeks applying Kant's ethical theory of duty to the interpretation of religion and submitted it to Kant as a way of gaining the philosopher's favor. The book met with Kant's approval and he found a publisher for the manuscript. By mistake, Fichte's name and the preface were omitted in the first printing and the book was popularly attributed to Kant. It was thought that this was Kant's fourth Critik, a fact that helped gain Fichte a wide and admiring readership. Subsequently, the work was reviewed favorably in the "Jenaische Literaturzeitung" - the critic claiming that Kant's style was unmistakable. This prompted Kant to publish a statement on July 3, 1792 naming Fichte as the real author, who became instantly famous. Among those who admired the book was Goethe who in 1794 secured Fichte a position teaching philosophy at the University of Jena in Weimar. Contemproary leather with gilt decorations around the edges of the front and rear boards. Spine with the author and title gilt on a red field with gilt decorations covering the rest of the spine. An absolutely gorgeous copy of Fichte's first book. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb.
TP + [I]-XVIII = einleitung + [XIX]-[XX] = Publisher's notices + [XXI-XXII] = Inhalt + [1]-494, small Octavo. First Edition (Lauth/Jacob 36; Baumgartner/Jacobs A1.36x).The Foundation of the Practical Side of Fichte's System"The practical [side of his system] was expounded in the 'Foundation of Natural Right', c. 1796, and the 'System of a Theory of Morals', 1798" (PMM, p. 147). But Fichte was very far from concentrating exclusively on the theoretical deduction of consciousness. He laid great stress on the moral end of the development of consciousness or, in more concrete terms, on the moral purpose of human existence. And we find him publishing in 1796 the Basis of Natural Right (Grundlage de Naturrechts) and in 1798 The System of Ethics (Das System der Sittenlehre). Both subjects are said to be treated 'according to the principles of the theory of science'. But the works are much more than mere appendages to the Wissenschaftslehre. For they display the true character of Fichte's philosophy, that is, as a system of ethical idealism." (Copleston, 7, I, p. 52) Contemporary brown speckled boards ¾ leather with gilt ruled compartments on the spine with the title and author in gilt on a red field in the second compartment. The top of the spine is very lightly chipped and the corners are a bit worn. With a former owner's (Erik Furas Bok) bookplate to the inside front cover. Overalll, this a well preserved and very presentable binding. Internally it is bright, tight and clean making it, overall, a very attractive copy. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
DERRIDA, Jacques.
Half-title with the author's other works noted on the verso + TP + [7] = Quote page + 9 - 439 + [440] = Printer's information. Octavo. First Edition. A Lovely Copy of Derrida's Seminal Writing and DifferenceWriting and Difference is a collection of Jacques Derrida's essays written between 1959 and 1966 which has become a landmark of contemporary French thought because it clearly presents Derrida's deconstructive approach and was designed to accompany the other two works that he published in the same year-De La Grammatologie and La Voix et le Phenomene.Here we find Derrida at work on his systematic deconstruction of Western metaphysics. The book's first half, which includes the celebrated essay on Descartes and Foucault, shows the development of Derrida's method of deconstruction. In these essays, Derrida demonstrates the traditional nature of some purportedly nontraditional currents of modern thought-one of his main targets being the way in which "structuralism" unwittingly repeats metaphysical concepts in its use of linguistic models.The second half of the book contains some of Derrida's most compelling analyses of why and how metaphysical thinking must exclude writing from its conception of language, finally showing metaphysics to be constituted by this exclusion. These essays on Artaud, Freud, Bataille, Hegel, and Lévi-Strauss have served as introductions to Derrida's notions of writing and différence-the untranslatable formulation of a nonmetaphysical "concept" that does not exclude writing-for almost a generation of students of literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis.Writing and Difference reveals the unacknowledged program that makes thought itself possible. In analyzing the contradictions inherent in this program, Derrida goes on to develop new ways of thinking, reading, and writing-new ways based on the most complete and rigorous understanding of the old ways. Readers from all disciplines find Writing and Difference to be an excellent introduction to perhaps the most challenging of contemporary French thinkers-challenging because Derrida questions thought as we know it. Publisher's original printed wraps. The spine is lightly creased from reading, but otherwise this is an excellent copy which shows no signs of wear, tear or use. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
WEIL, Simone.
Half title with publisher's advertisement on the verso + TP + [7]-56 + tipped in facing pages reproducing two pages from her famous "Factory Journal" + 57-273 + [275] = Table + [276] = Printer's information [dated September 12, 1951]. Tall octavo. First Edition (Little Aa9).Weil Reports on the Horrible Working Condition of the French ProletariatNobel Prize Winner, Saint-Leger's CopyFrom the library of Alex Saint-Leger who wrote under the pseudonym Saint-John Perse and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1960. With his underlined initials (A. S. L.) to the front free endpaper in pencil. Accompanied by E. Wharton & Co.'s original description of the item and Priscilla Juvelis' handwritten note to famed collector Lord Eccles attesting to the validity of the provenance. Weil's meditations on the mechanization of labor and the increasingly hazardous and inhumane conditions of the working class. During her factory years (1934-1935) Weil endeavored to personally experience the "proletarian condition" by enlisting as a manual laborer in various factories throughout suburban Paris. During her time in the factories, she rendered detailed accounts in her journal of the workers' daily struggles, including the grueling hours, the monotonous work, and their merciless treatment amidst the dangerous machines and equipment. Publisher's original wraps with green lettering to the front and back covers and the spine. Showing just the mildest bit of aging to the covers and spine. A remarkable association copy of Weil's work, which remains a penetrating meditation on life, work, and fulfillment the modern West. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
WEIL, Simone.
Seven issues, each in the original wrappers. A Superb Collection of Seven Essays by Simone Weil Published in Les Cahiers du Sud between 1941 and 1947This collection of Weil's contributions to Les Cahiers du Sud stands as an enduring testament to her revolutionary genius and vision-a vision that soared well beyond the confines of her short but very active life. Les Cahiers du Sud was an avantgarde, ultraliberal review that published poetry, essays, literary criticism, and cultural commentary from Marseille between 1925 and 1966. Jean Ballard, its founder and editor-in-chief, never turned away the works of writers who, for political reasons, could not find publishers elsewhere, among them Weil, Georges Bataille, Paul Valéry, Walter Benjamin and Antonin Artaud. Weil published eight articles in the magazine between 1940 and 1943, many of them under the pseudonym "Emile Novis," which was a loose anagram of her name (and likely a disguise of her Jewish surname). Following her death in August of 1943 at the age of thirty-four, the magazine continued to publish her works. This collection includes her essays "A propos des Jocistes" ("About the Workers"), "La Philosophie" ("The Philosophy"), "L'Avenir de la Science" ("The Future of Science"), and "Reflexions à propos de law Théorie des Quanta" ("Reflections on Quantum Theory"), and "L'Iliade ou le Poème de la Force" (The Iliad or the Poem of Force), among others published both before and after her death. During her days spent among the writers and editors of the magazine in Marseilles, Weil filled detailed notebooks with material for future articles and essays. Although her works were little known during her lifetime, they were posthumously assembled, published, and celebrated throughout the world in the years after her death - leading many to identify her as a modern saint.Despite this informal canonization, these works show her more secular side, highlighting her intellectual sensitivity to the turbulence of the world around her: included are her detailed reports on the status of local workers coalitions, criticisms of philosophical trends, and numerous complex attempts to grapple with the nearly incomprehensible tragedy of World War II - all of which demonstrate her immense skill as a writer and sophistication as a thinker. PLEASE SEE OUR CATALOG 23 "20th Century Women Philosophers" for a complete description of all seven of these rare publications. There is a small "Specimen" stamp to the covers of the April and May 1941 issues; minor toning throughout; more pronounced toning to the wrappers of the 1943 issue, with pages uncut, and glassine wrap over wrappers. This collection assembles many, but not all, of the articles and essays known to have been published by Simone Weil, some under her pseudonym, "Emile Novis," in the pages of the French literary magazine Les Cahiers du Sud. An amazingly well-preserved set of these delicate war and post-war publications. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
