Philosophers, both western and eastern, have long been divided between "humanists," for whom "man is the measure of things," and their opponents, who claim that there is a way, in principle knowable and describable, that the world anyway is, independent of human perspectives and interests.
The early chapters of The Measure of Things chart the development of humanism from medieval times, through the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, to its most sophisticated, twentieth-century form, "existential humanism." Cooper does not identify this final position with that of any...

This text provides an introduction to the key environmental debates. By addressing specific global problems and placing them within an ethical context, the collection provides the reader with both a theoretical and practical understanding of environmental issues. The contributors are drawn from the various disciplines which bear upon these issues, such as geography, psychology, social policy and philosophy. The contributors range from those tackling individual concrete issues (such as nuclear waste and the threat to the rain forest) to those addressing matters of policy, principle and...

Spirit of the Environment brings spiritual and religious concerns to environmental issues. Providing a much needed alternative to exploring human beings' relationship to the natural world through the restrictive lenses of 'science', 'ecology', or even 'morality', this book offers a fresh perspective to the field.
Spirit of the Enironment addresses:
* the environmental attitudes of the major religions;
* the relationship between art and nature;
* the Gaia hypothesis;
* the non-instrumental values which have inspired environmental concern.
Contributors...

This is the second volume in a new series of classic readings in philosophy and collects together the central texts in the history of moral philosophy thus representing many of the most important topics in the field.

From Plato to Quine, this volume provides a concise collection of the essential, classic readings in theory of knowledge.

Metaphysics: The Classic Readings is an essential collection of the most influential attempts to depict the fundamental nature of reality or being - from Spinoza's doctrine of a single, indivisible substance to Russell's 'logical atomism', and from the Buddha's account of a causally interrelated world to Leibniz's one of casually independent 'monads'.

This popular text has now been revised to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of the growing number of people interested in all the main philosophical traditions of the world.

• Introduces all the main philosophical systems of the world, from ancient times to the present day.
  
• Now includes new sections on Indian and Persian thought and on feminist and environmental philosophy.
  
• The preface and bibliography have also been updated.
  
• Written by a highly successful textbook author.

An insightful look at the philosophy of language. Philosophers have traditionally approached questions of meaning as part of the philosophy of language. In this book David Cooper broadens the analysis beyond linguistic meaning to offer an account of meaning in general. He shows that not only words, sentences, and utterances in the linguistic domain can be described as meaningful but also items in such domains as art, ceremony, social action, and bodily gesture. Unlike much of the recent work in the philosophy of meaning, Cooper is not concerned with trying to develop a theory of (linguistic)...

Why do gardens matter so much and mean so much to people? That is the intriguing question to which David Cooper seeks an answer in this book. Given the enthusiasm for gardens in human civilization ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, it is surprising that the question has been so long neglected by modern philosophy. Now at last there is a philosophy of gardens. Not only is this a fascinating subject in its own right, it also provides a reminder that the subject-matter of aesthetics is broader than the fine arts; that ethics is not just about moral issues but about 'the good life'; and...