Persons
OXFORD PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS
Christia Mercer, Columbia University
Series Editor
published in the oxford philosophical concepts series
Efficient Causation
Edited by Tad Schmaltz
Sympathy
Edited by Eric Schliesser
The Faculties
Edited by Dominik Perler
Memory
Edited by Dmitri Nikulin
Moral Motivation
Edited by Iakovos Vasiliou
Eternity
Edited by Yitzhak Melamed
Self-Knowledge
Edited by Ursula Renz
Embodiment
Edited by Justin E. H. Smith
Dignity
Edited by Remy Debes
Animals
Edited by G. Fay Edwards and Peter Adamson
Pleasure
Edited by Lisa Shapiro
Evil
Edited by Andrew Chignell
Health
Edited by Peter Adamson
Persons: A History
Edited by Antonia LoLordo
forthcoming in the oxford philosophical concepts series
Space
Edited by Andrew Janiak
Teleology
Edited by Jeffrey K. McDonough
Love
Edited by Ryan Hanley
Human
Edited by Karolina Hubner
The Self
Edited by Patricia Kitcher
Modality
Edited by Yitzhak Melamed
The World-Soul
Edited by James Wilberding
Powers
Edited by Julia Jorati
Human
Edited by Karolina Hubner
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Oxford University Press 2019
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ISBN 9780190634391 (pbk.)
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Contents
Antonia LoLordo
Ren Brouwer
Gregory Hays
Scott M. Williams
Anthony F. Shaker
Christina Van Dyke
Antonia LoLordo
Jennifer Tsien
Udo Thiel
Owen Ware
Aaron Preston
Mark Siderits
Sylvia Shin Huey Chong
Agnieszka Jaworska and Julie Tannenbaum
Oxford Philosophical Concepts (OPC) offers an innovative approach to philosophys past and its relation to other disciplines. As a series, it is unique in exploring the transformations of central philosophical concepts from their ancient sources to their modern use.
OPC has several goals: to make it easier for historians to contextualize key concepts in the history of philosophy, to render that history accessible to a wide audience, and to enliven contemporary discussions by displaying the rich and varied sources of philosophical concepts still in use today. The means to these goals are simple enough: eminent scholars come together to rethink a central concept in philosophys past. The point of this rethinking is not to offer a broad overview, but to identify problems the concept was originally supposed to solve and investigate how approaches to them shifted over time, sometimes radically. Recent scholarship has made evident the benefits of reexamining the standard narratives about western philosophy. OPCs editors look beyond the canon and explore their concepts over a wide philosophical landscape. Each volume traces a notion from its inception as a solution to specific problems through its historical transformations to its modern use, all the while acknowledging its historical context. Each OPC volume is a history of its concept in that it tells a story about changing solutions to its well defined problem. Many editors have found it appropriate to include long-ignored writings drawn from the Islamic and Jewish traditions and the philosophical contributions of women. Volumes also explore ideas drawn from Buddhist, Chinese, Indian, and other philosophical cultures when doing so adds an especially helpful new perspective. By combining scholarly innovation with focused and astute analysis, OPC encourages a deeper understanding of our philosophical past and present.
One of the most innovative features of OPC is its recognition that philosophy bears a rich relation to art, music, literature, religion, science, and other cultural practices. The series speaks to the need for informed interdisciplinary exchanges. Its editors assume that the most difficult and profound philosophical ideas can be made comprehensible to a large audience and that materials not strictly philosophical often bear a significant relevance to philosophy. To this end, each OPC volume includes Reflections. These are short stand-alone essays written by specialists in art, music, literature, theology, science, or cultural studies that reflect on the concept from their own disciplinary perspectives. The goal of these essays is to enliven, enrich, and exemplify the volumes concept and reconsider the boundary between philosophical and extra-philosophical materials. OPCs Reflections display the benefits of using philosophical concepts and distinctions in areas that are not strictly philosophical, and encourage philosophers to move beyond the borders of their discipline as presently conceived.
The volumes of OPC arrive at an auspicious moment. Many philosophers are keen to invigorate the discipline. OPC aims to provoke philosophical imaginations by uncovering the brilliant twists and unforeseen turns of philosophys past.
Christia Mercer
Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy
Columbia University in the City of New York
Ren Brouwer teaches philosophy and law at the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands). He has published on a variety of subjects in the philosophy of law as well as in ancient philosophy, see esp. The Stoic Sage (Cambridge University Press, 2014). He currently works on ancient conceptions of justice and on the interaction between law and philosophy in the late Roman Republic.
Sylvia Shin Huey Chong is Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Program in American Studies at the University of Virginia, where she also directs the Minor in Asian Pacific American Studies. Her current research focuses on racial performativity and yellowface minstrelsy in mid-twentieth-century American cinema and the social sciences.
Christina Van Dyke is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Gender Studies at Calvin College. She specializes in medieval philosophy and has written extensively on Thomas Aquinass account of human nature, on embodiment, and on philosophical methodology and medieval mysticism.