Arthur O. Lovejoy (Book order (chronological))

Arthur O. Lovejoy Book order (chronological)

Arthur Oncken Lovejoy stands as a foundational figure in the history of ideas, a field he established through his rigorous examination of intellectual concepts. He pioneered the study of "unit ideas," meticulously tracing how single, often one-word, concepts combine and evolve across historical epochs. His incisive critique of pragmatism, particularly in "The Thirteen Pragmatisms," remains a significant contribution to epistemology. Beyond academia, Lovejoy actively engaged in public life, co-founding key organizations while thoughtfully considering the boundaries of intellectual freedom in the face of perceived threats.

The Great Chain of Being

382 pages
14 hours of reading

From later antiquity down to the close of the eighteenth century, most philosophers and men of science and, indeed, most educated men, accepted without question a traditional view of the plan and structure of the world.In this volume, which embodies the William James lectures for 1933, Arthur O. Lovejoy points out the three principles - plenitude, continuity, and graduation - which were combined in this conception; analyzes their origins in the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists; traces the most important of their diverse ramifications in subsequent religious thought, in metaphysics, in ethics and aesthetics, and in astronomical and biological theories; and copiously illustrates the influence of the conception as a whole, and of the ideas out of which it was compounded, upon the imagination and feelings as expressed in literature.

1985

4.1