[WILSON, Bill].
Original front board cover + TP + 1 leaf = Index + 1 leaf = Index -- (2) + 1 leaf = Foreword + 1-4 = The Doctor's Opinion + 1-76 + 1 leaf = The Alcoholic Foundation + 1-79 = Personal Stories. [note: with p. 64 printed upside down] + original rear board cover, 8½ " x 11", First Mulitlith Edition ("The Original Manuscript Edition").Copy #2 of the Pre-publication Multilith Printing of Alcoholics AnonymousOwned and Annotated by Jim Burwell -"The New York Atheist"(The Man Who Contributed "God as we understand Him" to the Big Book)[dated by hand: "#2 Copy / Dec. 8, 1938"]In mid-February of 1938, a pre-publication multilithed copy of what, two months later, would become the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous was circulated to members, relatives, friends, ministers, psychologist and doctors for their comments and critiques. The exact number of printed copies is unclear - numbers of 100, 300 and (most commonly) 400 are mentioned in the record. These copies were sent out as "loan" copies with every expectation they would be returned with annotations - after which they would be destroyed. Many copies were returned and disposed of according to this plan, but a handful of others were not - resulting in no more than 50 - and perhaps as few as 25 copies - surviving. WE HAVE A FULL THREE-PAGE DESCRIPTION OF THIS BOOK AND ITS PROVENANCE THAT WILL NOT FIT HERE BECASUSE OF ABE'S RESTRICTIONS ON SIZE. PLEASE CONTACT ME DIRECTLY FOR A COPY OF THAT DETAILED WRITE-UP. This copy of the book has been rebound twice. Once at some point Anonymous Book No. 2. of the First Hundred Mimeographed Copies" on the front cover in gilt lettering. By 1993, this second binding was in need of replacement so an identical looking black cloth binding (with exactly the same front cover title information) was created by Ron M. The first black cloth binding has been separately preserved along with the original endpapers from that binding. NOTE that the almost-never-seen red card covers (but not marked "Loan Copy" as some were supposed to have been) are both bound in here. Overall, an amazingly well-preserved and historically important annotated association copy of this major work that has saved the lives of so many people since its publication 75 years ago. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. PRE-PUBLICATION MULTILITH PRINTING - "THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT".
ANDREAS-SALOME, Lou.
Half title + TP + 5-[315] + [316]-[319] = Publisher's ads, Octavo. First Edition.Exploring the Psychological and Social Tensions of Changing Gender Relations in early 20th Century GermanyWritten in 1904, but not published until 17 years later, Das Haus (The House) is Lou Andreas-Salomé's depiction of her female protagonists' constant vacillation between submission and self-assertion - thereby confronting her reader with the conflict feminism represented for women in early twentieth-century Germany. On the one hand, women were socialized to be wives and mothers. On the other, the women's movement in turn-of-the-century Germany had begun to articulate the necessity for recognizing women as independent individuals who would not be solely defined in terms of men, children, and the home. The transition from one social order to another was neither easy nor immediate, and Salomé's novel keenly reflects the psychological and social discord it prompted for many women.Das Haus is a complicated and subtle demystification of the oppressive patriarchal foundations of the domestic sphere, of family life, and, by extension, of society as a whole, reflecting Salomé's ambivalent position vis-à-vis the project of woman's emancipation. In this novel, she embraces both conservative and progressive perspectives on women, and attempts to reconcile the traditionally contradictory characteristics of femininity and autonomy in the interest of her own understanding of "woman." Salomé manipulates contemporary concepts and stereotypes of moan, sexuality, marriage, and motherhood in order to examine the basis for the self-dissolution of woman in marriage and criticize the notion of its inevitability [She] portrays woman's subordination and self-dissolution in marriage, but she does not advocate it: she depicts it in combination with moments of woman's resistance in order to suggest compromises, forms of marriage and parenting that would neither suppress woman's autonomy nor force that autonomy too hastily upon them.- Muriel Cormican, Lou Andreas-Salomé's Das Haus Publisher's green and black patterned binding with author, title and "Roman" (Novel) on a black-on-orange front cover label with the author and title also appearing on the pasted down label on the spine. A remarkably well-preserved copy of this first edition by Lou. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
ANDREAS-SALOME, Lou.
1 leaf with publishers device + TP + 5-[124] + [125] = Verzeichnis der Tafeln + [127] = printer's information + [128] = publisher's advertisement, with 8 photo illustrations throughout, Octavo. First Edition.In her psychoanalysis of a much appreciated lover, friend, and intellectual associate, Lou Salomé provides a singular personal perspective on the mind of one of the most incredible modern poets and artists. She employs both her considerable intellectual abilities and her maternal sensitivity to present an explanation of Rilke's complicated mind and of his work. Like her book on Nietzsche, it is loosely organized, without dates or specific details, yet it is a comprehensive analysis of how Rilke's psychological makeup manifested itself in his poetry. The relationship between Salomé and Rilke was more than just that of romantic lovers. They deeply admired each other; she, his gentle intelligence, and he, her confidence and competence. She continued to affect him deeply throughout his adult life, sometimes with great proximate intensity, sometimes with a distant guidance - but as a consistent presence during his last twenty-eight years. As in any fruitful, intimate relationship, they exchanged new ideas and experiences, while constantly encouraging each other to grow intellectually and artistically through the interplay of their different philosophies and perspectives. With the personal insight that only she possessed, Salomé traces Rilke's lifelong development not only as a poet, but also as a thinker, charting a course through his unhappy childhood to his intellectual enlightenment and his early death. However, unlike other works published about Rilke, this book stands as the only text written by someone who knew him so intimately, providing invaluable insight into the nuances and complexities of his work. She captures his internal turmoil - his horror at bodily existence, his sensitivity to the harshness of reality - and synthesizes this with her own experiences to clarify and explain the relationship between Rilke's psychology and his greatest poetic works. Original black cloth with gilt lettering on the front cover and spine. All but untouched, this is as lovely a copy as one could expect of a 90-year-old book that was not published with a dust jacket to protect it. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
ANDREAS-SALOMÉ, Lou.
1 leaf with publisher's advertisements on both sides + TP + [5] = Dedication page + [7] = half title + [9]-364 + [365] = Inhalt. Octavo. First Edition.Written between 1895 and 1898, Children of Man is a compilation of ten stories that define the intricate meaning of femininity through examinations of the main female archetypes that Salome observed within society. It received much praise from reviewers not only for its stellar quality of writing, but also for its astutely accurate and realistic depiction of womankind. In contrast to her other semi-autobiographical works, here Salomé employs her own observations and encounters of women that she has met throughout her life. Through the different female characters, Salome depicts the broad range and uniqueness of womankind while emphasizing the commonalities of their shared experience. To reference just four of the ten stories, beginning with the tale of Edith, Salome invites the reader into the world of a virgin wife of an older, handicapped man. Edith is described as lovely and attractive women, enchanting all who surround her. However, she rigidly maintains her chastity and avoids surrendering to the seductive attempts that other men make to her. In the next story, Salome details a career-focused woman, Anyuta, who has lost her innocence through her intellectual pursuits. In this character, she examines purity as a trait that is not defined by sexuality, but instead defined by a woman's interactions with the often carnal nature of intellectualism. When the character's career is demeaned and dismissed as unworthy of attention by her love interest, she retreats from the fleeting love back into her career. In another story she details the life of Irene, a woman who wants none of the expected female life of home and children and, in fact, she wants no human relationships at all. She instead seeks a union with nature, which is entirely different from another character, Ella. Ella embodies the "normal" woman; she embodies the expected social values; happily expecting a future of love and marriage. Despite their vastly different lives, however, Salome maintains the claim that each is equal to one another. Ella's maternal generosity does not elevate her above Edith's refusal to surrender to the wills of others; Anyuta's drive to excel in her employment is not a better goal than Irene's desire to achieve a union with nature. Instead of pitting women against each other based on their different pursuits, Salome brings the women together to display their shared plight as females in society. Salome urges the abolition of the divisive mindsets that serve to separate women from each other, and describes the shared unity amongst even the most different of kind of people. Original publisher's olive green cloth with black and gilt lettering and decorations on the front cover and the spine. There is a small former owner's signature blue ink to the free space beside the publisher's device on the title page. Otherwise, a lovely, clean and tight copy of this remarkable compilation by the revolutionary Lou Andreas-Salomé. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
JEVONS, W[illiam] Stanley,.
[pp. 497-518 along with 3 lithographic plates in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for the year MDCCCLXX, Vol. 160]. TP + [iii]-iv = Advertisement + 3 unnumbered sheets inserted with recto and verso lists of institutions and individuals receiving Philosophical Transactions + [iii]-v = Contents + [vii] = List of Illustrations + [1]-174 + 2 large folded inserts + 175-608 + 52 Lithographic Plates, Quarto, First Edition (Hook & Norman, Origins of Cyberspace 330; Tomash & Williams, J15).A Landmark of Computer Science - Jevon's Original Announcement of His "Logical Piano"The First Working Analog ComputerThis paper, delivered to the Royal Society on January 20, 1970, preceded Jevon's more familiar presentation of the "logical piano" in Principles of Science by four years. Jevons' talk was accompanied by the exhibition and demonstration of an actual "logical piano" - and that machine can be seen today at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.The machine was built according to Jevons' specification by a young Salfor clockmaker and has been described as "the first such machine with sufficient power to solve a complicated problem faster than the problem could be solved without the machine's aid" [Gardner, Logic Machines and Diagrams, p. 91]."From his thinking on the processes of logical inference, [Jevons] developed the idea that these might be performed mechanically. As early as 1865 he was trying to build a 'reasoning machine, or logical abacus' (Papers, 4.69), which evolved through several stages into a 'logical piano' or logical machine which he demonstrated before the Royal Society in January 1870. He thought it 'quite as likely to be laughed at as admired' (Letters and Journal, 250), but it was later to be recognized as one of the forerunners of twentieth-century computers " [R.D. Collison Black, Dictionary of National Biography].[Jevons'] logic owes something to De Morgan and a good deal more to Boole. It represents in the main an attempt to simplify Boole's system by eliminating the more complex and uninterpretable of its mathematical operations and by reducing its procedures of calculation to a mechanical routine Jevons's most interesting adaptation of Boole is to be seen in his method of indirect inference-the principle underlying his "logical piano" and other mechanical aids to calculation-whereby premises are used to eliminate inconsistent combinations of terms from a matrix listing all the possibilities under which a given set of terms and their negatives can be associated. The machine itself, exhibited at the Royal Society in 1870 and described in the Philosophical Transactions for the same year, anticipates in its design a number of the features of modern logical computers [The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 4, p. 260] Contemporary ¾ leather with marbled boards which show a bit of wear overall along with a spine label with title gilt on a black field. There is a blacked-out former library stamp on the verso of the title page which has lightly bled through to the other side along with the stamped notification "Zum Verkauf freigegeben" (Released for Sale). Overall, this is a lovely copy of this famous presentation of the earliest analog computer ever built. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
SCHOTT [also SHOTT or SCHOTTO], Gaspar.
The Earliest Full Description of a "Computing Machine"Two Volumes, Quarto, First Edition. [BECAUSE OF ABE SIZE LIMITATIONS,OUR COMPLETE COLLATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THIS BOOK COULD NOT BE PRINTED HERE. PLEASE EMAIL FOR A COPY OF THAT VERY COMPLETE AND EXHAUSTIVE DESCRIPTION OF THESE TWO LOVELY VOLUMES.]With innumerable printed illustrations and tables throughout the text.The Organum Mathematicum was an information device or teaching machine invented by the Jesuit polymath and scholar, Athanasius Kircher, in the middle of the 17th century. The first published description of the Organum Mathematicum came in this book by Gaspar Schott, who was Kircher's pupil. The book includes excerpts from Kircher's original manual. There are no surviving Organums which closely resemble the device illustrated in Schott's book, but there are three known devices, likely of Jesuit manufacture, which contain essentially the same content.The Organum device - containing approximately twenty-four rods - is described in Schott's book by their functions, separated into nine main "books". Contemporary green boards with handwritten spine labels for the author title and for old library classification. Minor professional repairs have been done to the edges and tips of the bindings. From the private library of Michel'angelo Lambertini (small label on the inside front cover of both volumes). With an occasional older faint library stamp in blue ink (an oval 1¼" wide). The covers are worn (see photo) and the pages are lightly browned throughout, but overall this is a lovely copy of this early seminal work on building a "knowledge machine." ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
BARNES, Julian.
1 blank leaf with "by the same author" on verso + half-title + TP + dedication page + Contents page + half-title + [11]-190, Octavo. First American Edition.A Signed First American Edition with a laid in "Compliments of the Author" CardSigned by Barnes on the title page and with the "compliments of the author" card laid in.This brilliant novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984 and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize the following year. In the book, Barnes speaks through the amateur Flaubert expert, Geoffrey Braithwaite, presenting his musings on both Flaubert's and his own life, as he looks for a stuffed parrot that inspired the great author.Braithwaite, a widowed, retired English doctor, goes to France and, while visiting sites related to Flaubert, discovers two museums claiming to display the stuffed parrot which sat atop Flaubert's writing desk for a brief period while he wrote Un Coeur Simple. While trying to identify which is authentic, Braithwaite learns that Flaubert's parrot could be any one of fifty that had been held in the collection of the municipal museum.Although the narrative is mostly about tracking down the parrot, many chapters focus on Flaubert's life and one of the central themes throughout is subjectivism. The novel provides three sequential chronologies of Flaubert's life: the first is optimistic (citing his successes, conquests, etc.), the second is negative (citing the deaths of his friends/lovers, his failures, illnesses etc.) and the third compiles quotations written by Flaubert in his journal at various points in his life. The futile attempts to find the real Flaubert mirrors Braithwaite's futile attempt to find his parrot. a fine unclipped dust . ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Half title with a list of Bergson's earlier publications on verso + TP + I-VIII = Introduction + 1-304 [misprint for 403], Octavo. Second Edition.Bergson's Important and Influential "Creative" Challenge to Darwin's MechanismL'Évolution créatrice proposes a version of orthogenesis (the theory that variations in evolution are not merely sporadic and fortuitous, but that they follow a particular - though not necessarily teleological - direction). Bergson's theory is presented as stark opposition to and as an alternative to Darwin's wholly mechanistic theory of evolution. Henri claims that evolution is motivated by an élan vital, a "vital impetus," the progress of which he saw as a line continually bifurcating or diverging from its course. The evolution of matter, he said, is orderly and geometric while disorder is the effect that the élan vital - with its free and unpredictable creativity - has on its material surroundings. Bergson further claims that this "vital impetus" can be seen most explicitly in humanity's own natural impulse to creativity. In the late 19th-early 20th century, Bergson was one of the most famous and influential French thinkers and his international fame reached cult-like heights during his lifetime. But during WWII, his influence began to fade although Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, and Lévinas all explicitly acknowledged his influence. It was Gilles Deleuze's Bergsonism - published in 1966 - which is credited with the reawakening of interest in Bergson's work; an appreciation which has grown and continues to the present day. "For Bergson, the notion of life mixes together two opposite senses, which must be differentiated and then led into a genuine unity. On the one hand, it is clear from Bergson's earlier works that life is the absolute temporal movement informed by duration and retained in memory. But, on the other hand, he has shown that life also consists in the practical necessities imposed on our body and accounting for our habitual mode of knowing in spatial terms. More specifically then, Bergson's project in Creative Evolution is to offer a philosophy capable of accounting both for the continuity of all living beings-as creatures-and for the discontinuity implied in the evolutionary quality of this creation. Bergson starts out by showing that the only way in which the two senses of life may be reconciled (without being collapsed) is to examine real life, the real evolution of the species, that is, the phenomenon of change and its profound causes. His argument consists of four main steps. First, he shows that there must be an original common impulse which explains the creation of all living species; this is his famous vital impulse (élan vital). Second, the diversity resulting from evolution must be accounted for as well. If the original impulse is common to all life, then there must also be a principle of divergence and differentiation that explains evolution; this is Bergson's tendency theory. Third, the two main diverging tendencies that account for evolution can ultimately be identified as instinct on the one hand and intelligence on the other. Human knowledge results from the form and the structure of intelligence. We learned from "The Introduction to Metaphysics" that intelligence consists precisely in an analytic, external, hence essentially practical and spatialized approach to the world. Unlike instinct, human intelligence is therefore unable to attain to the essence of life in its duration. The paradoxical situation of humanity (the only species that wants to know life is also the only one that cannot do so) must therefore be overcome. So, fourth, the effort of intuition what allows us to place ourselves back within the original creative impulse so as to overcome the numerous obstacles that stand in the way of true knowledge (which are instantiated in the history of metaphysics)."Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy early 20th century half leather with marbled boards. Gilt lettering and five raised
4 blank leaves + TP + [3]-68 + bound in thrice-folded map of Terrae Sanctae delineation (Map of the Holy Land) + 69-70 + [71]-[82] + TP + 1-317 + [318]-[324], 12mo. Second (first 12mo.) Edition."The Greatest Heretic of His Age" - He Claimed There Were Men Before Adam! - A Major Influence on Spinoza Isaac de La Peyrère (1596-1676) was a French theologian, Bible critic, and anthropologist. He was born in Bordeaux and raised a Calvinist. In 1640, he became the Prince de Condé's secretary. He wrote Praeadamitae in 1642-43 and, unable to find a printer, circulated the manuscript privately in France, the Netherlands, and Denmark. In 1644, the recently abdicated Queen Christina of Sweden saw his manuscript, urged its publication, and agreed to pay the costs. It was printed anonymously in Amsterdam in 1655 by Elzevier but with no notice of the author, the publisher or the city of origin - first in quarto and then, in that same year, in this 12mo edition. The book was quickly banned and burned everywhere for its heretical claims that Adam was not the first man, that the Bible is not the history of mankind (but only the history of the Jews), that the Flood was a local event, that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, and that no accurate copy of the Bible exists. La Peyrère identity as the author was quickly discovered and he was arrested and told he would be released only if he turned Catholic and recanted to the Pope. He did this in am almost blatantly hypocritical fashion, saying that his heresies resulted from his Calvinist upbringing, and that though all Jews and Christians disagreed with him, and though he could still find no Scriptural or reasonable evidence against his theories, he would abjure them because the Church said they were wrong. The Pope offered him a post, but La Peyrère returned to Paris to become the Prince de Condé's librarian and a lay member of the Oratorians. La Peyrère has been characterized as a heretic, atheist, deist, Socinian, father of Bible criticism, and father of Zionism. He argued his pre-Adamite theory first on a farfetched interpretation of several verses of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, then from information about pagan history, and finally from anthropological evidence about the Indians, Eskimos, and Chinese. His analysis of the Bible played a great role in the development of Higher Criticism, making a strong impression on Spinoza (who had a first edition quarto copy of this book in his library). His separation of Jewish and gentile histories also influenced Vico in the developing secular historiography. On the far less desirable side, La Peyrère's pre-Adamite theory was revived in the early 19th century as a basis for polygenesis and modern racism, claiming the American Indians and the blacks were not sons of Adam. Contemporary vellum with yapped edges, elegant manuscript lettering to the spine, and completely unrestored. The binding is lightly soiled overall and has a ½" x ¾" burn mark to the rear top corner. There is a faint, ornate former owner's signature to the right middle of the title page. The text is unmarked. A really gorgeous copy of this important book in the History of Ideas. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
TP + [i]-[vi] = Epistola Dedicatoria + [vii]-[[xx] = Index + 1-310. First Edition. (Guibert pp. 118-119; Tchemerzine, IV, p. 297) + TP + [i]-[xiv] = Index + 1-331; Small Quarto. First Latin Edition of Descartes' First Book. (Guibert p. 104-105; Tchemerzine, IV, p. 287)The Two (Simultaneous) First Appearances of the Famous "Cogito" in PrintSIMULTANEOUSLY PUBLISHED and BOUND TOGETHERWhile the publication date of the Principia is known to be July 10, 1644 (Guibert, p. 119 et al.), the exact day of the Specimina's publication is nowhere noted in contemporary documents. However, the exhaustive scholarship of Corinna Lucia Vermeulen (René Descartes, Specimina Philosophiæ, Introduction and Critical Edition, Doctoral Dissertation, 1969. 418 pp.) argues that the printing of the Principia was interrupted to await some still unfinished woodcuts and that the Specimina was printed during that time interval (pp. 20-22). Vermeulen also notes that "it can now be established that both works were usually bound in one volume, in the complimentary copies as well as in the Elzevier's bookshop." She provides exhaustive evidence to verify the fact - while noting the books were also available individually - that they were most commonly packaged and sold in one volume. Vermeulen further states that while there is no known priority for the two books, they were originally bound with Principia appearing first - it being the long-awaited, completely new work - while the Specimina - a Latin translation of the Discours which had originally been published in 1637 in French - always appeared second. [BECAUSE OF ABE SIZE LIMITATIONS WE CANNOT PRINT HERE THE FULL TWO-PAGE DESCRIPITION OF THIS REMARKABLE BOOK HERE. PLEASE CLICK ON "ASK SELLER A QUESTION' ON THIS WEBPAGE AND REQUEST A COPY.]Bound together, these two works are sometimes referred to as the first edition of Descartes' Opera Philosophica (see Guibert p. 229). But the first true Opera, which appeared in 1650, contained these two works plus Les Passiones Animae. Subsequent editions of the Opera mixed these and other works together somewhat indiscriminately (Guibert, pp. 230-233). Contemporary vellum binding with five lines of largely unreadable hand titleing to the top of the spine. Some spotting ans soiling to the binding. The front fly leaf is a bit worn and lightly chipped on the edges with old scriptions dated 1684 and later (one from 1743 appearing on the verso). Otherwise, a really lovely copy of this monumentally important pair of book by Descartes. Housed in a grey card slip case. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
TP + [i]-[lxii] = Præfatio + [lxiii]-[lxiv] = Methodum Philosphiæ [of the author] + [lxv]-lxxi] = Paralipomena + [lxxii]= Typographus + 1-273 + [274]-[279] = Index. 12 mo. First Edition.A Vicious 1643 Attack on Descartes (actually Written by his Arch-Enemy Voetius)A vicious contemporary attack on Rene Descartes - published just two years after his Meditationes first appeared - accusing him of atheism in the most virulent of terms. Martin Schoock (1614-1669) was a Dutch academic and polymath who studied theology and philosophy under Antonius Walaeus in Leiden and then earned his doctorate in philosophy around 1636 as a student of Gisbertius Voetius. About 1638 he became professor at the University of Deventer and then became professor of logic and physics at the University of Groningen in 1640. Descartes was grievously offended by this book and complained to the French ambassador, accusing Schoock of libeling him. Schoock was arrested and spent two days in jail. Despite Schoock's identification as the author on the first page of the Præfatio, he disowned this claim and said that the major part of the book had actually been written by Descartes' arch-enemy, Gisbertius Voetius. citing letters from his former professor to prove this.The whole affair incensed Descartes so much that it prompted the publication of his third book, Epistola Renati Des-Cartes ad celeberrimum virum D.[omino] Gisbertum Voetium (Letters of René Descartes to the celebrated Gysbertus Voetius), in that same year, 1643.A supremely orthodox Calvinist, Voetius, was the first professor of theology at the University of Utrecht and the first clergyman of the city. From these strategic vantage points he had begun his attack on Descartes' teachings as early as June of 1639 when he held a series of debates and attempted to prove that certain tenets taken from the Discours were in fact atheistic. In response, Descartes' friend and ally at the University, Henricus Regius, carried the fight to Voetius via public debates and pamphlets. Voetius was a particularly prolific writer (as was his ally, his son Paul) and he began to wield even more influence and more invective after becoming rector of the University in March of 1641. The matter came to a head when Voetius helped Schoock produce and publish this refutation of Cartesian philosophy and triumphed in securing the political condemnation of Descartes. The philosopher could work with intermediaries no longer and, seeking public vindication, he himself published his book of "Letter" with his detailed description of all of the wrongs done to him by Voetius and his co-conspirators. He concluded the small book with eloquence and no small amount of his own invective: This, of course, did nothing but prolong the debate and the controversy raged on until Descartes' death in 1650 (and beyond). Contemporary sheepskin with gilt lettering and decorations on a spine with five raised bands. With a small printed former bookplate of the Bibliotheque de Campvieux to the side front cover. Overall a really lovely copy of this important book in the history of ideas as they unfolded at the beginning of the modern era. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
TP + [i] = Dedication page + [iii] = Inhalt + [1]-238 + 1 leaf with printer's information on the verso, Octavo. First Edition. An Insightful Analysis of the Socially Oppressed Women in Ibsen's Plays In Henrik Ibsens Frauen-Gestalten, Lou Andreas-Salomé laid the foundation for both her career as an author and also as an interpreter of literary modernity. In this book, she explores the role of women as they were portrayed in Ibsen's plays, comparing them to real role of women in society. The book established Salomé as a serious writer of non-fiction and successfully launching her philosophically psychological career.Motivated by her own marital situation, Ibsen's theme of "self-realization in marriage" was what most interested Lou in this book. Similar to the playwright's characters, Salomé saw marriage as a restraint on women, a rather unnecessary and limiting social construct that served little purpose and only held women back from achieving their goals. She emphatically describes and examines the liberation strategies of the literary figures and translates that to experiences of her own life while appealing for women to make advances in their own lives. In her analysis of these female characters, Salomé focused exclusively on the psyche of fictional women. She recognized and praised Ibsen's development from A Doll's House and Ghosts, where women glorify love and revere their male partners, to The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, The Lady from the Sea and Hedda Gabler, where women no longer surrender to men as objects of love, but rather focus on their own emotional lives and their own love.Salomé's ability to analyze and offer a solution to the issues that these fictional female figures face in marriage exhibits the depth of her insight and makes a substantial contribution to the world of literary analysis while simultaneously delivering an indispensable contribution to the late 19th-century study of women in society. Original publisher's grey cloth with embossed gilt lettering and black decorations on the front cover and spine. With a former owner's small stamp ("Inge Weiner Berlin NW 21 Dormunder Str. 7") to the verso of the front free endpaper. Overall, this is a very pretty copy of Lou Salomé's second book. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
1 blank leaf + TP + [i]-[vii] = Præfatio+ [viii] = Ad Librum + [ix]-[xiv] = Index + 1-90 + [91] = half-title + 93-140 + 1 blank leaf; Small Quarto. First Edition (Kingma-Offenberg 1).First Edition of Spinozas First Book Explicating DescartesThis, Spinoza's first work, is the only one published during his lifetime that identified him as the author and had the correct information on the printer-publisher. Spinoza's next two works (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus & Opera posthuma) were very much his own radical thought (rather than a reworking of Descartes ideas as here) and so were necessarily published anonymously, listing false information about the printer-publisher on the title page. The radical nature of Spinoza's thought and the dangers of publishing such materials in this time and place are brilliantly explained in Jonathan Israel's Radical Enlightenment (Oxford, 2001). Here Spinoza presents an exposition of Cartesian philosophy but he has recast it using his own geometrical method of reasoning and presentation. The origins of this work are interesting and clearly explained by the author himself in a letter to his friend, Oldenburg, written shortly after the book's publication: "Some of my friends asked me to make them a copy of a treatise containing a precise account of the Second Part of Descartes' Principia Philosophiæ [1644], demonstrated in the geometric style, and of the main points treated in metaphysics. Previously, I had dictated this to a certain young man to whom I did not want to teach my own opinions openly. They asked me to prepare the First Part also by the same method, as soon as I could. Not to disappoint my friends, I immediately undertook to do this and finished it in two weeks. I delivered it to my friends, who in the end asked me to let them publish the whole work. They easily won my agreement, on the condition that one of them [Lodewijk Meyer], in my presence, would provide it with a more elegant [Latin] style and add a short preface warning readers that I did not acknowledge all the opinions contained in this treatise as my own, since I had written many things in it which were the opposite of what I held, and illustrating this by one or two examples. One of my friends, to whose care the publishing of this little book has been entrusted, has promised to do all this and that is why I stayed for a while in Amsterdam." (Nadler, Spinoza, A Life, p. 205)This rather straightforward - though completely reformatted - exposition of Descartes is followed by the Cogita Metaphysica (Metaphysical Thoughts- pp. 91-140 - with its own half-title page) which is written from the Cartesian perspective (defending, for instance, the freedom of the will) but with some serious foreshadowing of Spinoza's later doctrines. Contemporary vellum with blind tooled 2" high monogram "SH" (or "HS") in the center of front and back covers. Both covers are a bit soiled and lightly worn with just a bit of mild "bubbling" to the rear cover (see photo). Old bookseller ticket to upper left corner of the Antiquariat Verlag G.m.b.H. Charlottenburg 2) Old, small inked writing unobtrusively and mostly erased from TP (not affecting text - see photo just above "More Geometrica demonstratae"). Despite these minor 350-year-old flaws, this is a stunningly beautiful contemporary copy of Spinoza's first work. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
[Volume I]: 2 blank leaves + TP + [iii]-vi = Contents + [1]-136 = No. I + [137]-272 = No. II + [273]-408 = No. III + [409]-544 = No. IV, Octavo. First Edition.[Volume II]: 2 blank leaves + TP + [iii-vi] + [1]-136 = No. I + [137]-272 = No. II + [273]-408= No. III+ "Errata" tab bound in + [409]-544 = No. IV + 3 blank leaves, Octavo. First Edition. After many transcendentalist works were refused acceptance by numerous other influential journals, Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and several others created and published The Dial. The magazine was envisioned as a platform where members of this liberal American intellectual community could exchange ideasamong themselves and inform others of their transcendentalist ideals. The Dialeschewed the elitist positioning of other journals of its day, seeking instead to enable everyday individuals to think more deeply about themselves and the world around them. Despite these lofty goals and its stable of brilliant writers, The Dial'scirculation never exceeded three hundred, and only sixteen numbers were ever issued. In the magazine, a wide variety of ideas were discussed, explored, and argued. Most prominently featured werethose of the transcendentalists, but other modern social and ethical issues were given equal space, including explorations of ways to help the urban poor and improve the lot the working class along with feminist issues and the struggles of the marginalized. During its short lifespan,The Dial was the primary platform for Transcendentalism and a place where the voice of many different radical thinkers could be heard. For the first time since the American Revolution, there was an organized party of educated revolutionaries who hoped to inspire a violent reaction against the established mode of culture which had deprived so many of a fulfilling life. The freethinking population of American society finally had a vehicle for promoting and publicizing their ideas. But The Dialwas far more than just a magazine of ideas. Its underlying importance is found in its progressive, inclusive texts written in such a fashion as to be accessible to nearly everyone. It was a place to publish works that spoke out against injustice along with works too radical to be published in most other magazines, creating an environment where rejected ideas were accepted - and vice versa. The Dialwas created to appeal to all; it not only spoke to the sophisticated aristocracy, but also to the literate members of the lower classes. It was a refreshing contribution to the American community, a refined medley of educational ideas that encouraged an understanding and appreciation of the life-affirming, soul-uplifting aspects of music, art, and literature, while also acknowledging and analyzing the grimmest, bleakest, and dreariest aspects of society. Perhaps most important, however, was its inclusion of women. Leading this publication as editor was the brilliant feminist intellectual Margaret Fuller. Margaret was a remarkable figure in literature, philosophy, and social reform, with achievements impressive enough to rival those of her more advantaged male counterparts. Her editorial contributions drove The Dial in the more radical directions she herself espoused, showcasing her dedicated opposition to the social restrictions created by government, the economy, and society as a whole while condemning the greed of the commercial aristocracy and the general sense of negativity she saw pervading the country.Fuller, along with other contemporary female writers, sympathized with the disadvantaged community which accounted for most of the American population, a sympathy her male counterparts did not seen topossess in any great degree. Unlike the educated, privileged male authors of The Dial, Fullerknew what it was like to be routinely denied opportunities and respect, an injustice to which many members of the working class could easily relate. In contrast to the male-written soul-uplifting essays co
Half title with publisher's list of James' works on the verso + TP + [v] = Dedication + [vii]-xiv = Preface + [xv]-xvii =Contents + [1]-332 + 1 blank leaf, Octavo. First Edition, First Printing (McDermott 1897-3).James Eloquent and Important Defense of "Our Right to Adopt a Believing Attitude in Religious Matters" This, his first overtly piece of philosophical writing, is seminal for any understanding of William James' thought. Here he famously defends religious beliefs because of their beneficial effects on believers. A popular collection, these nine essays - written between 1879 and 1896 - were first published in an edition of 1,000 copies in March of 1897 and had to be reprinted twice that same year and many times thereafter. (See James, Will to Believe, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1979, pp. 307-8)Many of James's most important and innovative contributions are developed in this early book - including his advocacy of pluralism and what he calls in the Preface "radical empiricism". The book clearly illustrates James's efforts to weave together insights from psychology, philosophy, and religion without great regard for the growing and narrowing lines of professional specialization and shows, in the wake of the "The Principles of Psychology, his increasing interest in religious questions.In that sense alone, this book must be read as a major precursor and prelude to his monumental Varieties of Religious Experience - which was published just five years later. In the opening controversial and most famous essay, "The Will to Believe", (which James admitted, might better have been called "The Right to Believe") is "a defence of our right to adopt a believing attitude in religious matters, in spite of the fact that our merely logical intellect may not have been coerced." Driven by his fierce rejection of W.K. Clifford's statement that "it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence," James spends most of this essay challenging and then dismissing this very limited 'scientific' approach to truth, knowledge and belief and defending the right to adopt a belief that might prove beneficial. In general, James makes a place for and shows the importance to life for a belief in transcendent reality and he does so, pointedly, without endorsing any specific religious creed. (See Richardson, William James in the Maelstrom of American Modernism, Houghton Mifflin, 2006, pp. 361-365 for more details on this book.)Of special note, James dedicated this book to Charles Sanders Peirce of whom he says: "To My Old Friend, Charles Saunders[sic] Peirce, To whose philosophic comradeship in old times and to whose writings in more recent years I owe more incitement and help than I can express or repay." The ever crusty Charles Peirce would soon dismiss William James' brand of "pragmatism" and lobby for his own understanding of that philosophical approach which he labelled "pragmaticism." Original publisher's green cloth with a 2½" high paper label to the spine, Both the spine and the label are sun-darkened - but the label remains 100% readable. With some very light sunning to the extreme edges of both boards. Over and above those noted faults, this is an amazingly well-preserved - clean, tight and bright - copy of this important and scarce book by William James. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Half title + TP + Dedication Page + [VII]-VIII + [1]-182 + 1 leaf = Table des Matières, Octavo. First Edition. First edition of Bergson's doctoral dissertations and his first book - translated into English in 1910 as Time and Free Will, An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. "In 'Time and Free Will' Bergson undertook to show that the recognition of real duration provides a basis for vindicating human freedom and disposing of determinism Freedom of action, according to Bergson, is something directly experienced. Man feels himself to be free as he acts, even though he may be unable to explain the nature of his freedom. However, we are free only when our act springs spontaneously from our whole personality as it has evolved up to the moment of action." (EP, Vol. 1, p. 288)"This thin volume contains a complete system of metaphysics. It bears all the traits of an early work of genius in which the germs of the author's entire philosophy are contained." (Müller-Freienfels, pp. 89-92) Lausanne, Sept. 94". A very pretty and well-preserved, untrimmed copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
1 leaf (verso = foretitle opposite TP) + TP + [III]-XXIV [note that at the end these pages are bound out of order - 19, 17, 23, 21 - but they are complete] = Vorrede + XXV-XXVI = Inhalt + half-title + [3]-355, Octavo. First Edition (which includes the often missing foretitle "Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse.") Hegel's Important & Influential Book on Politics and Statecraft - [PMM 283]Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Hegel's last major published work, is an attempt to systematize ethical theory, natural right, the philosophy of law, political theory, and the sociology of the modern state into the framework of his overarching philosophy of history. Hegel's work has been interpreted in radically different ways, influencing many political movements from far right to far left, and is widely perceived as central to the communitarian tradition in modern ethical, social, and political thought. Considered by many to be one of the greatest works of moral, social, and political philosophy in the Western Canon, it contains significant ideas on justice, moral responsibility, family life, economic activity, and the political structure of the state - all matters of profound and enduring interest to us today.Hegel's study remains one of the most subtle and perceptive accounts of freedom that we possess. He argues that genuine human freedom does not consist in doing whatever we please, but involves living with others in accordance with publicly recognized rights and laws. Hegel strives to demonstrate that institutions such as the family and the state provide the context in which individuals can flourish and enjoy full freedom, but insists that such freedom cannot exist and properly flourish outside of a perfectly organized state. He also demonstrates how a misunderstanding of the true nature of freedom can lead to crime, evil, and poverty. His penetrating analysis of the causes of poverty in modern civil society was to be a great influence on Karl Marx. The Philosophy of Right begins with a discussion of the concept of the free will and argues that a free will can only realize itself in the complicated social context of property rights and relations, contracts, moral commitments, family life, the economy, the legal system, and the political structure. A person is not truly free, in other words, unless he is a participant in all of these different aspects of the life of the state.The bulk of the book is devoted to discussing Hegel's three spheres of 'right,' each one being larger than the preceding one and encompassing it. The first sphere is abstract right (Recht), in which Hegel discusses the idea of 'non-interference' as a way of respecting others. He deems this insufficient and moves onto the second sphere, morality (Moralität). Under this, Hegel proposes that humans reflect their own subjectivity of others in order to respect them. The third sphere, ethical life (Sittlichkeit), is Hegel's integration of individual subjective feelings and universal notions of right. Under ethical life, Hegel then launches into a lengthy discussion about family, civil society, and the state.Hegel - always aware of the 'larger picture' - also argues that the state itself is subsumed under the higher totality of world history, in which individual states arise, conflict with each other, and eventually fall. The course of history is apparently toward the ever-increasing actualization of freedom; each successive historical epoch corrects certain failures of the earlier ones. In the end, Hegel leaves open the possibility that history has yet to accomplish certain tasks related to the inner organization of the state."In 1821 'The Outline of the Philosophy of Right' appeared, in which his final system of a sociology of the perfectly organized state, such as an ideal Prussia might be, was laid down. He rejected the idealistic aspirations of the reformers, their vague assertions of individual freedom being, in his judgment, trifling compared with t
Volume 1 (A-G): 1 blank leaf + Title Page + [i]-[ii] = Priviegie + 1-12 = Preface + 1-712 + Title Page + 713-1359 + [1360] = Errata du I. Volume + 1 blank leaf; Volume 2 (H-Z): 1 blank leaf + Title page + 1-710 + Title Page + 711-1331 + [1332] = Errata du II. Volume + [1333]-[1388] = Table des Matieres + 1 blank leaf, Folio. First Edition.First Edition of Bayle's Famous "Dictionary" - PMM 155The true first edition with the Preface dated 23rd October 1696. One of just 2,000 copies printed. Bound in two volumes as called for by the Errata. Bayle, "the most important and influential skeptic of the late seventeenth century" (EP, Vol. I. p. 257) "wrote his 'Historical and Critical Encyclopedia' in his voluntary exile in Rotterdam as an anti-clerical counterblast to Moréri's work [Le Grand Dictionnaire, 1674] in order, as he put it, 'to rectify Moréri's mistakes and fill the gaps'. Bayle championed reason against belief, philosophy against religion, tolerance against superstition. In a seemingly detached way he posed argument and counter-argument side by side, reserving his most daring insinuations to the renvois (references), which supplemented the actual entries. For over half a century, until the publication of the [philosophes] Encyclopédie, Bayle's Dictionaire dominated enlightened thinking in every part of Europe."The Dictionary was composed in Talmudic style. Relatively brief biographical articles appeared at the top of the page, while all sorts of digressive notes on factual, philosophical, religious, or other matters appeared below, with notes on notes appearing in the margins. For instance, the biography of some extremely little-known person would provide forums for discussing the problem of evil; the immorality of great figures, especially Old Testament ones; the irrationality of Christianity; the problems of Locke's, Newton's, Malebranche's, Aristotle's, or anyone else's philosophy; or for some salacious tale about a famous theologian, Catholic or Protestant, or a famous political figure of almost any age. There was, in short, little relation between the official subject of an article and its real content. Bound a very pretty and presentable copy of this hugely important work contemporary full leather with gilt decorations and gilt lettering in red fields to the spine. The boards are worn and a bit dinged, with light cracking to the outer joints most noticeably to Volume 1 (3" down from the front top and ½" up from the front bottom) and to Volume 2 (3" up from the front bottom and 2" down from the rear top). Still
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