‎Williamson, Timothy (New College, Oxford, Uk)‎
‎Philosophy of Philosophy‎

‎Historia Critica Philosophiae. A mundi incunabulis ad nostram usque aetatem deducta. 5 tomi (recte 4 vols., in 5 parts (vol. 4 in two parts, the latter also called Tomus 5). - [ESTABLISHING HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY WITHIN PHILOSOPHY]‎

‎Lipsiae (Leipzig), 1742-1743 . 4to. Bound in three very nice contemporary uniform full calf bindings with raised bands and richly gilt spines. A bit of wear to extremities, especially upper capitals, which lack a bit of leather. Two leaves of the final index with a restoration, otherwise internally very nice and clean. A very nice set. Old owner's names and handwritten quote to front free end-paper of vol. 1. Complete with the engraved portrait in vol. one and all four engraved plates. Engraved illustrataed vignette to all title-pages, some engraved illustrations in text. Portrait, (14), 1357, (35) (8), 1092, (32) (6), 916, (28) (4), 789, (27)" (8), 939, (29) pp.‎

‎The scarce first edition of Brucker's seminal main work, which introduced the historiographical concept ""System of philosophy"" and established history of philosophy as a philosophical discipline. ‎

‎Marx Karl: The Poverty of Philosophy: The Philosophy of Poverty by Proudhon In R‎

‎Marx Karl: The Poverty of Philosophy: The Philosophy of Poverty by Proudhon In Russian (ask us if in doubt)/Marks Karl. Nishcheta filosofii. Otvet na Filosofiyu nishchety Prudona The present edition of Marxs work contains Friedrich Engelss foreword to the first German edition of the book. SKUalb59499c1fa445e22a.‎

‎Archeologia Philosophica Nova or New Principles of Philosophy containing Philosophy in general, Metaphysicks, or Ontology. Dynamilogy, or a discourse of Power. Religio Philosophi or Natural Theology. Physicks, or Natural Philosophy.‎

‎"18. London, printed by F.H. for Samual Thomson, 1663, small in-4°, 19,5 x 14 cm, halftitle + large folding portrait frontispiece (engr. Pierre Philippe) + title + (46) nn pp + 103 pp ; title + (3) nn pp + 128 pp ; title + (1)(bl) + 441 pp + (1)(errata) with three nearly full-page woodcuts representing ''Chaos''. Contemporary full calf, blindtooled fillets and fleurons on both covers, binding worn and partly loose, upper inner joint completely loose, but still an acceptable copy. Gideon Harvey (ca. 1640 - 1700) was one of the most successful physicians of the 17th century; he was physician to king Charles II. In 1683, as a senior member of the Royal College of Physicians, he classified the physicians of the College into six groups. These comprised the chalybeates, medical ass-drivers, jesuitical doctors, medical water-bailiffs, butcher doctors and muck doctors. Each type, Harvey maintained, cured disease by different means."‎

‎History of the Inductive Sciences. From the Earliest to the Present Times. In three volumes. + The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon their History. In two volumes. Five volumes in all. - [COINING THE TERM ""SCIENTIST""]‎

‎London, 1837 + London, 1840. Five volumes 8vo. Bound in five contemporary, uniform brown half calf bindings (The Philosophy...-volumes slightly darker brown) with raised bands and gilt spines. Marbled edges. A bit of light edge-wear, but overall very fine and fresh. Some marginal pencil markings to first part of vol. 1 of ""The Philosophy..."", otherwise also internally very nice and clean. All five volumes with the same engraved amorial bookplate to inside of front boards. A very nice, uniform set of the five volumes that make up the two works. XXXVI, 437, (3)" XI, (1), VI pp., pp. (7)-534, (2) XII, 624 pp. + CXX, 523, (1)" IV, 586 pp. + folded plate. ‎

‎Uncommon first editions of both these splendid works (the ""Philosophy"" is particularly scarce), Whewell's two main works, both seminal in the history of science and philosophy of science. The first of the two works, the ""History"" is considered ""one of the important surveys of science from the Greeks to the nineteenth century"" (DSB), and it is in the second of them, ""The Philosophy..."" - ""one of the masterpieces of Victorian philosophy of science"" (DSB) - that he coins the word ""scientist"", to describe a cultivator of science in general. “William Whewell (1794–1866) was one of the most important and influential figures in nineteenth-century Britain. Whewell, a polymath, wrote extensively on numerous subjects, including mechanics, mineralogy, geology, astronomy, political economy, theology, educational reform, international law, and architecture, as well as the works that remain the most well-known today in philosophy of science, history of science, and moral philosophy. He was one of the founding members and a president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Royal Society, president of the Geological Society, and longtime Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his own time his influence was acknowledged by the major scientists of the day, such as John Herschel, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell and Michael Faraday, who frequently turned to Whewell for philosophical and scientific advice, and, interestingly, for terminological assistance. Whewell invented the terms “anode,” “cathode,” and “ion” for Faraday. In response to a challenge by the poet S.T. Coleridge in 1833, Whewell invented the English word “scientist""” before this time the only terms in use in that language were “natural philosopher” and “man of science”.” (SEP). ""First published in 1840, this two-volume treatise by Cambridge polymath William Whewell (1794-1886) remains significant in the philosophy of science. The work was intended as the 'moral' to his three-volume History of the Inductive Sciences (1837)... Building on philosophical foundations laid by Immanuel Kant and Francis Bacon, Whewell opens with the aphorism 'Man is the Interpreter of Nature, Science the right interpretation'. Volume 1 contains the majority of Whewell's section on 'ideas', in which he investigates the philosophy underlying a range of different disciplines, including pure, classificatory and mechanical sciences. Whewell's work upholds throughout his belief that the mind was active and not merely a passive receiver of knowledge from the world. A key text in Victorian epistemological debates, notably challenged by John Stuart Mill and his System of Logic, Whewell's treatise merits continued study and discussion in the present day."" (Cambridge University Press). ""From the late 1830's until his death, Whewell worked mainly in the history and philosophy of science. His three-volume ""History of the Inductive Sciences"" appeared in 1837" in 1838 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy" and the first edition of his two-volume ""The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History"" was published in 1840. Both the ""History"" and the ""Philosophy"" were ambitious works, and together they constitute Whewell's major scholarly achievement. The ""History"" had no rivals in its day and remains, despite unevenness, one of the important surveys of science from the Greeks to the nineteenth century. Whewell appreciated the importance of Greek science, especially astronomy, but showed typical disregard for the contributions of medieval scientists. His assessment of the importance of contributions of such major figures as Galileo and Descartes suffers from a heavy intrusion of religious and philosophical biases. But his treatment of Newton and other modern mathematical scientists is fair and sometime brilliant, and is based throughout upon detailed considerations of texts. Wheweel's ""Philosophy"" stimulated major philosophical exchanges between its author and Sir John Herschel, Augustus De Morgan, Henry L. Mansel, and John Stuart Mill. Alongside Mill's ""System of Logic"" and Herschel's ""Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy"", the work ranks as one of the masterpieces of Victorian philosophy of science. Whewell's effort in these works was unique in his attempt to derive a philosophy of science from the general features of the historical development of empirical science. The importance of this attempt has not been fully appreciated. Whewell thought that the history of science displayed a progressive movement from less to more general theories, from imperfectly understood facts to basic sciences built upon a priori foundations that he called ""Fundamental Ideas."" All science was theoretical in that no body of data comes to us selforganized"" even collection of data involves the imposition of a guiding interpretive idea. Major advances in science occur in what Whewell called an ""Inductive Epoch,"" a period in which the basic ideas of a science are well understood by one or more scientists, and in which the generality and explanatory power of a science are seen to be much more illuminating than those of rival theories. Each such ""Epoch"" had a ""Prelude,"" a period in which older theories experienced difficulties and new ideas were seen to be required, and a ""Sequel,"" a period in which the new theory was applied and refined. Largely ignoring the British tradition of empiricist philosophy and methodology, Whewell erected a philosophy of science upon his understanding of history that derived partly from Kant and Plato, and partly from an anachronistic theological position. Like his British predecessors, he thought that induction was the basic method of science. He understood induction not as a form of inference from particulars to generalizations, but as a conceptual act of coming to see that a group of data can best be understood and organized (his term was ""colligated"") under a certain idea. Furthermore, induction was demonstrative in that it yields necessary truths, propositions the logical opposites of which cannot be clearly conceived. The zenith of the inductive process was reached when a ""consilience of inductions"" took place-when sets of data previously considered disjoint came to be seen as derivable from the same, much richer theory. Although Whewell thought that the paradigm form of a scientific theory was deductive, he departed from the orthodox hypothetico-deductivist view of science by claiming that tests of the acceptability of given theories are extraevidential, based on considerations of simplicity and consilience. He made some attempt to justify the necessity of the conclusions that induction yields by arguing for the identity of facts and theories, and for the theological view that we know the world the way it is because that is the way God made it. In physical astronomy Whewell's work on the tides ranks second only to that of Newton. Also of great importance was his lifelong effort to modernize and improve science education at Cambridge. The achievement in history and philosophy of science probably is less significant, although recent revival of interest in Whewell has centered mainly upon his insights in philosophy of science and methodology. Interest is growing in the interrelations of history and philosophy of science"" and so long as this interest continues to be fruitful, it will be well worthwhile considering what Whewell had to say on the nature of scientific discovery, inductive methodology, and the characteristics of scientific progress."" (DSB, XIV, pp 293-94) ‎

‎De divisione naturae [also known as the Periphyseon]. Libri quinque. Accedit appendix et ambiguis S. Maximi Graece & Latine. - [""WITH HIM TRUE PHILOSOPHY FIRST BEGINS"" (HEGEL)]‎

‎Oxford, E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1681. Folio. Nice contemporary full calf with five raised bands and single gilt line-decorations to spine. Gilt title-label and gilt lettering to spine. Double blindstamped borders to boards. All edges of boards gilt. A bit of wear to hinges and capitals, but overall very nice. Internally very clean and fresh with only minimal, light occasional browning. With the book-plate of Gaddesden Library to inside of front board. Engraved device to title-page. (14), 312"" (4), 88 pp. ‎

‎Rare first edition of the founding work of Western medieval philosophy, the main work by ""the one important philosophical thinker to appear in Latin Christendom between Augustine... and Anselm."" (Encycl. of Phil.). This magnum opus of medieval thought is considered the ""final achievement"" of ancient philosophy (Burch: Early Medieval Philosophy, 1951) and is one of the few true defining moments of medieval philosophy. It not only marks the beginning of Western medieval philosophy, it also anticipates German idealism. Kolakowski identifies ""De divisione naturae"" as the archetype of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind (see ""Main Currents of Marxism""), the Hegelians considered him the father of German idealism, and Hegel states that ""Scholastic philosophy is considered to begin with John Scotus Erigena who flourished about the year 860, and who must not be confused with the Duns Scotus of a later date... With him true philosophy first begins, and his philosophy in the main coincides with the idealism of the Neo-Platonists."" (From Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Part Two. Philosophy of the Middle Ages). As the dialectical reasoning in the “De divisione naturae” prefigures Hegel, its theory of place and time as defining structures of the mind anticipates Kant. As Gordon A. Leff also points out, Eriugena stands out as the one original thinker in the period from Boethius to Anselm. He is responsible for a revival of philosophical thought which had remained largely dormant in Western Europe after the death of Boethius and creates the only philosophical system to emerge in more than half a millenia. He is the forerunner to speculative idealism, considered a “Proclus of the West” (Hauréau, 1872) and the “Father of Speculative Philosophy” (Huber, 1861). According to The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Eriugena is ""the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period. He is generally recognized to be both the outstanding philosopher (in terms of originality) of the Carolingian era and of the whole period of Latin philosophy stretching from Boethius to Anselm"""" Gersh praises his notion of structure, which places him amongst modern writers rather than medieval ones, stating also that ""(i)n some respects, Western medieval philosophy can be viewed as beginning with the brilliant and controversial ninth-century thinker JohnScotus Eriugena."" (Gersh, p. 125). His magnum opus ""synthesizes the philosophical accomplishments of fifteen centuries and appears as the final achievement of ancient philosophy"" (Burch). Eriugena became extremely influential throughout the later Middle Ages and directly influenced Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard van Bingen, and Nicolas of Cusa. He also anticipates Thomas Aquinas in saying that one cannot know and believe a thing at the same time, and exercised a direct influence on modern philosophy. After the rediscovery of his magnum opus, which was printed for the first time in 1681 (the present work), his astonishingly modern train of thought and his immensely important philosophical system came to directly influence some of the most important thinkers of the modern era, most significantly probably Hegel. Eriugena is often referred to as “the Hegel of the 9th century”, and he thus also became a primary influence upon Marx’ dialectical form. Schopenhauer stresses the importance of the rediscovery of Eriugena with the present publication and says in Parerga and Paralopomena (vol. I) “ After Scotus Erigena had been lost and forgotten for many centuries, he was again discovered at Oxford and in 1681, thus four years after Spinoza's death, his work first saw the light in print. This seems to prove that the insight of individuals cannot make itself felt so long as the spirit of the age is not ripe to receive it.” “In the later Middle Ages both Meister Eckhart of Hochheim (c.1260–c.1328) and Nicholas of Cusa (1401–64) were sympathetic to Eriugena and familiar with his “Periphyseon”. Cusanus owned a copy of the “Periphyseon”. Interest in Eriugena was revived by Thomas Gale’s first printed edition of 1687 (recte: 1681). However, soon afterwards, Thomas Gale’s first printed edition, the “Periphyseon”, was listed in the first edition of the “Index Librorum Prohibitorum”, and remained on it, until the Index itself was abolished in the 1960s. In the nineteenth century, Hegel and his followers, interested in the history of philosophy from a systematic point of view, read Eriugena rather uncritically as an absolute idealist and as the father of German idealism. The first critical editions of his major works were not produced until the twentieth century (Lutz, Jeauneau, Barbet) [...] Eriugena is an original philosopher who articulates the relation between God and creation in a manner which preserves both divine transcendence and omnipresence. His theory of human nature is rationalist and intellectualist but also apophatic. His theory of place and time as defining structures of the mind anticipates Kant, his dialectical reasoning prefigures Hegel. But above all, Eriugena is a mystic who emphasizes the ultimate unity of human nature and through it of the entire creation with God.” (SEP). Eriugena - who Bertrand Russel also considered ""the most astonishing person of the ninth century"" - had been commissioned by Charles the Bald to translate the writings that were then thought to be by Dionysius (the learned pagan converted by St. Paul). Eriugena had taught himself Greek and succeeded in an excellent translation. ""He went on to translate various other Greek Christian texts, by Gregory of Nyssa and the seventeenth-century Maximus the Confessor. All these influences along with his wide reading of the Latin fathers (especially Ambrose and Augustine) and his enthusiasm for logic.. are combined in his masterpiece ""Periphyseon (""About Nature"""" it is also sometimes known as ""De divisione naturae"", ""On the division of nature""), written in the 860s. The ""Periphyseon"" has been seen by some as continuing a tradition of Greek Neoplatonic thought, and by some as anticipating nineteenth-century German Idealist philosophy"". (Stephen Gersh, Johannes Scotus Eriugena and Anselm of Canterbury, p. 121. In: Marenbon, Medieval Philosophy, 2004). Although the beautiful Oxford-imprints from the second half of the seventeenth century are usually not rare in themselves, the present work is very scarce indeed. A reason for this might be that the book was placed on the “Index Librorum Prohibitorum” right after publication and remained on it, until the Index itself was abolished in the 1960s. This editio princeps of Eriugena’s main work also contains Eriugena’s translation of one of the works that influenced him the most, namely the “Scholia Maximi in Gregorium Theologium”, which also appears here in print for the first time. Johannes (c.800–c.877), who signed himself as “Eriugena” in one manuscript, and who was referred to by his contemporaries as “the Irishman” (scottus—in the ninth century Ireland was referred to as “Scotia Maior” and its inhabitants as “scotti”) is the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period. He is generally recognized to be both the most outstanding philosopher (in terms of originality) of the Carolingian era and of the whole period of Latin philosophy stretching from Boethius to Anselm… Eriugena’s uniqueness lies in the fact that, quite remarkably for a scholar in Western Europe in the Carolingian era, he had considerable familiarity with the Greek language, affording him access to the Greek Christian theological tradition, from the Cappadocians to Gregory of Nyssa, hitherto almost entirely unknown in the Latin West… Eriugena’s thought is best understood as a sustained attempt to create a consistent, systematic, Christian Neoplatonism from diverse but primarily Christian sources. Eriugena had a unique gift for identifying the underlying intellectual framework, broadly Neoplatonic but also deeply Christian, assumed by the writers of the Christian East… Overall, Eriugena develops a Neoplatonic cosmology according to which the infinite, transcendent, and “unknown” God, who is beyond being and non-being, through a process of self-articulation, procession, or “self-creation”, proceeds from his divine “darkness” or “non-being” into the light of being, speaking the Word who is understood as Christ, and at the same timeless moment bringing forth the Primary Causes of all creation. These causes in turn proceed into their Created Effects and as such are creatures entirely dependent on, and will ultimately return to, their sources, which are the Causes or Ideas in God. These Causes, considered as diverse and infinite in themselves, are actually one single principle in the divine One. The whole of reality or nature, is involved in a dynamic process of outgoing (exitus) from and return (reditus) to the One. God is the One or the Good or the highest principle, which transcends all, and which therefore may be said to be “the non-being that transcends being”. In an original departure from traditional Neoplatonism, in his dialogue Periphyseon, this first and highest cosmic principle is called “nature” (natura) and is said to include both God and creation. Nature is defined as universitas rerum, the “totality of all things”, and includes both the things which are (ea quae sunt) as well as those which are not (ea quae non sunt). This divine nature may be divided into a set of four “species” or “divisions” (divisiones) which nevertheless retain their unity with their source. These four divisions of nature taken together are to be understood as God, presented as the “Beginning, Middle, and End of all things”.” (SEP). ‎