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Open access philosophy books, a thread: Part V

Brian Leiter

The last thread garnered 22 submissions, so I thought with fall approaching, it would make sense to open a new thread. The rules, as before:

In light of the growing number of these volumes, I am going to run a thread periodically in which I invite authors or readers to share links to philosophical works that are currently or permanently “open access.”  Please use your full name and a valid email address (the latter will not appear) and include the URL for the book (give the title and the author, if you are not the author).  Authors or readers can only say something about the work and what it tries to do.  Please indicate if the “open access” period is limited.

Submit your comment only once, it may take awhile to appear.  Do not post about books that have appeared in earlier iterations of these threads.

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3 responses to “Open access philosophy books, a thread: Part V”

  1. Matt Lister

    Jon Crowe’s Cambridge Elements volume _Contempoary Natural Law Jurisprudence_ is available for free download until Aug. 21 (so, a bit more than a week from now.)

    I taught this in my philosophy of law class this last term, and thought it was very good – both a good intoduction to contemporary natural law views, and an interesting defense of a Crowe’s own view, clearly written and easy to both teach and read. It’s worth a look for people intrested in a relatively short introduction to natural law theory, especially one that isn’t committed to a theistic foundation. It’s available here:

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/contemporary-natural-law-jurisprudence/A56E3446047B8E94AF85689AFD83D08D

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  2. Jörg Schaub

    Modern Aesthetics and Democratic Life: The Struggle for Aesthetic Freedom by
    Jörg Schaub (permanently open-access)

    Description
    In this innovative open-access study, Jörg Schaub demonstrates that the aesthetic is essential to democratic societies’ aspiration to realize a life of equal freedom for all.

    Revisiting seminal eighteenth-century aesthetic treatises, Schaub advances a new interpretation of modern aesthetics and, in doing so, lays the groundwork for his original account of Hegel’s post-ideal conception of aesthetics. He argues that what lies at the core of these accounts-and gives them their cultural significance-is the value they accord to free perceptual, emotional, and imaginative exploration of the world, and he shows how this orientation transforms our understanding of the values of freedom and equality.

    Building on this interpretation of modern aesthetics, Schaub develops a novel conception of aesthetic recognition that expands familiar recognition relationships by bringing into view the consideration we owe one another as perceiving, feeling, and imaginative beings. Through a range of case studies, he shows that many conflicts in democratic life are also struggles for aesthetic recognition. This perspective yields a critical theory of aesthetics capable of diagnosing and criticizing forms of aesthetic misrecognition.

    Schaub brings aesthetics into dialogue with social and political philosophy and critical theory. His study constitutes a significant intervention in the long-standing debate about aesthetics and politics, reshaping how we think about freedom in democratic life.

    Endorsement
    ‘That we moderns expect to be recognized not only as moral persons and credible knowers, but also as aesthetic subjects with a unique sensibility can be shown by empirical observation – but the many implications of this fact were thus far completely unexplored. This pathbreaking study by Jörg Schaub masterfully expounds on the ramifications of aesthetic recognition from all possible angles. Starting with a clarification of his definition of aesthetics, Schaub leads his readers through many stages until they realize how important it is for our democratic freedom to be equally recognized as subjects with distinct capacities for sensual imagination. This book offers the sociologically based aesthetics that critical theory needs to comprehend its own time in thoughts.’ (Axel Honneth, Jack B. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University)

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  3. David Velleman

    I’m not sure whether an interactive, online logic textbook counts as an open-access philosophy book, but for those who might be interested, it’s here: https://weblogic.a2hosted.com/Logic . It includes such things as interactive truth-tables, Venn diagrams, possible worlds diagrams, and so on. I developed it for teaching Introduction to Logic to undergraduates. (I’m not sure all of the interactive tools still work.)

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