Anthony Kenny Books

The development of philosophy from the early 19th to the late 20th century is explored through the insights of influential thinkers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Marx, Wittgenstein, and Russell. Sir Anthony Kenny provides an engaging narrative that highlights the evolution of philosophical thought during this transformative period. This work serves as the concluding volume of Kenny's comprehensive New History of Western Philosophy, offering a deep understanding of key ideas and their impact on the modern intellectual landscape.

Concise historical introduction to The Enlightenment and its continuing influence on the world and how we see it.

First published in 1978, Anthony Kenny, a prominent English philosopher, examines the concept of responsibility and the role of mental elements in criminal actions.

“Kenny’s Descartes is a notably good and important book. He says it is ‘designed to help undergraduate and graduate students in understanding Descartes’ philosophy.’ The book concentrates on Descartes’ epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind; but the penultimate chapter, on Matter and Motion, contains a succinct account of Descartes’ mechanism and a critique of the a priori side of his natural philosophy.”

Although almost unknown in his lifetime, it was Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) who set the agenda for much of twentieth-century philosophy. His 'concept script' overthrew Aristotle's long-established system of logic and underlies all subsequent developments in the subject. His radically new approach to the foundations of arithmetic, based on fresh definitions of the terms 'zero', 'one' and 'successor', revolutionized our understanding of mathematics. And his important insights into the nature of language and meaning provided the framework for Russell, Wittgenstein and twentieth-century linguistic analysis. In this superb survey of his evolving ideas, Anthony Kenny explains and assesses the full range of Frege's work and reveals why it still forms an ideal introduction to modern analytic philosophy. Even after seventy years, he concludes, Frege remains an absolutely central figure, one of those rare thinkers who wrote 'prose which is accessible and attractive on first acquaintance and yet which repays rereading over a lifetime'

The exploration of Aristotle's views on happiness reveals a pivotal debate regarding whether it is rooted in the exercise of virtues or found through philosophical contemplation. Anthony Kenny revisits this discourse, building on his previous work to argue for the significance of Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics alongside the Nicomachean Ethics. He proposes that a balanced interpretation of both texts allows admirers of Aristotle to maintain their appreciation while engaging with the complexities of his ethical framework.

Action, Emotion and Will was first published in 1963, when it was one of the first books to provoke serious interest in the emotions and philosophy of human action. Almost forty years on, Anthony Kenny's account of action and emotion is still essential reading for anyone interested in these topics.The first part of the book takes an historical look at the emotions in the work of Descartes, Locke and particularly Hume. In the second part, Kenny moves on to discuss some of the experimental work on the emotions by 20th Century psychologists like William James. Separate chapters cover feelings, motives, desire and pleasure. This edition features a brand new preface by the author.

In these brilliantly vivid vignettes Kenny offers telling and often unexpected insights into the achievements, flaws and foibles of sixty public figures - past and present - each of whom has contributed in decisive ways to our political, spiritual and cultural heritage.

Historical introduction to Immanuel Kant and his continuing influence on the world and how we see it.

From Plato's "Republic" and St. Augustine's "Confessions" to Marx's "Capital" and Satre's "Being and Nothingness", this splendidly written volume takes readers on a chronological tour through the evolutions of thought that have forged the Western philosophical tradition from ancient times to the present. 150 illustrations. of color plates. 3 maps.