The "German Socrates", Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) was the most influential Jewish thinker of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A Berlin celebrity and a major figure in the Enlightenment, revered by Immanuel Kant, Mendelssohn suffered the in...

In 1986, Elie Wiesel received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his victory over "the powers of death and degradation, and to support the struggle of good against evil in the world". Soon after, he and his wife, Marion, created the Elie Wiesel...

A critical edition of Vico's original Latin text and a faithful translation of this early work on metaphysics. It also includes an introduction that offers guidance in understanding this challenging text and assessing its significance.

"Who Was Jacques Derrida?" is the first intellectual biography of Derrida, the first full-scale appraisal of his career, his influence, and his philosophical roots. It is also the first attempt to define his crucial importance as the ambassador of "t...

This fresh examination of the works of Montesquieu seeks to understand the shortcomings of the modern democratic state in light of this great political thinker's insightful critique of commercial republicanism. The western democracies' muted response...

In 1989, the Cold War abruptly ended and it seemed as if the world was at last safe for democracy. But a spirit of uneasiness, discontent, and world-weariness soon arose and has persisted in Europe, in America, and elsewhere for two decades. To disce...

The rise and spectacular fall of the friendship between the two great philosophers of the eighteenth century, barely six months after they first met, reverberated on both sides of the Channel. As the relationship between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Dav...

Arguably the leading British historian of his generation, Hugh Trevor-Roper (1914-2003) is most celebrated and admired as the author of essays. This volume brings together some of the most original and radical writings of his career – many hitherto i...

In this important and original book, eminent scholar Barbara Herrnstein Smith describes, assesses, and reflects upon a set of contemporary intellectual projects involving science, religion, and human cognition. One of these initiatives, which Smith c...

What would it be like to be privy to the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers? John Gerassi had just this opportunity; as a child, his mother and father were very close friends with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and the...