The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Vol. 2

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R. I. Moore

'R. I. Moore traces the roots of dissent, the support which it commanded, and the reactions which it elicited from the holders of established power in the changing needs and conflicts of the expanding society of the eleventh and twelfth centuries: in spite of repression religious uniformity has never since reigned unchallenged. His controversial argument is that the ideas and aspirations of the heretics had far less to do with religious faith or outlook than with the consequences of social anxieties and frustrations. He holds too that similarly the dogma of the Catholic Church can be understood more clearly in terms of the politics of power than of salvation.'

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Prudence Allen

The culmination of a lifetime's scholarly work, this pioneering study by Sister Prudence Allen traces the concept of woman in relation to man in Western thought from ancient times to the present. Volume I uncovers four general categories of questions asked by philosophers for two thousand years. These are the categories of opposites, of generation, of wisdom, and of virtue. Sister Prudence Allen traces several recurring strands of sexual and gender identity within this period. Ultimately, she shows the paradoxical influence of Aristotle on the question of woman and on a philosophical understanding of sexual coomplemenarity. Supplemented throughout with helpful charts, diagrams, and illustrations, this volume will be an important resource for scholars and students in the fields of women's studies, philosophy, history, theology, literary studies, and political science. In Volume 2, Sister Prudence Allen explores claims about sex and gender identity in the works of over fifty philosophers (both men and women) in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods. Touching on the thought of every philosopher who considered sex or gender identity between A.D. 1250 and 1500, The Concept of Woman provides the analytical categories necessary for situating contemporary discussion of women in relation to men. Adding to the accessibility of this fine discussion are informative illustrations, helpful summary charts, and extracts of original source material (some not previously available in English). In her third and final volume Allen covers the years 1500--2015, continuing her chronological approach to individual authors and also offering systematic arguments to defend certain philosophical positions over against others.

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Angelo Mazzocco

"One of the burning issues of late medieval and early Renaissance Italy was the question of the language. The single most important figure to treat this subject in the late Middle Ages was Dante Alighieri. The Dantean argument on language with its implicit acknowledgment of a classical bilingualism and its faith in the efficacy of the vernacular stimulated and defined the debate on language among the humanists of the fifteenth century."--BOOK JACKET. "This book aims at a novel and open-ended reading of Dante's literature on language and at a systematic reconstruction of the whole body of humanistic literature on linguistic phenomena. In so doing, it recaptures the theoretical assumptions - philological empiricism, political ideology, stylistic imperatives, literary aspirations - that shaped the thinking of Bruni, Biondo, Alberti, Guarino, Poggio, Filelfo, Valla, Landino and Lorenzo de' Medici. The work, therefore, goes beyond the strict, technical periphery of linguistic enquiry, and it becomes a study of intellectual history."--BOOK JACKET.

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Torbjörn L. Knutsen

"Torbjorn L. Knutsen introduces ideas on international relations expressed by thinkers from the High Middle Ages to the present day, and traces the developments of four ever-present themes: war, wealth, peace and power. The book counters the assumption that international relations has no theoretical tradition and shows that scholars, soldiers and statesmen have been speculating about the subject for the last 700 years." "Beginning with the roots of the state and the concept of sovereignty in the Middle Ages, the author draws upon the insights of outstanding political thinkers. Clearly and succinctly the theories of Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hegel, Rousseau, Bentham, Marx and Lenin amongst others are discussed and analysed. The ideas of these thinkers are placed in context with the societies and intellectual ideas that produced them. The text is fully revised and updated to include the place of international relations after the Cold War and new ways of thinking opened up by developments in information technology."--Jacket.