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145 title(s) found
displaying results: 1 - 145

FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb. Das System der Sittenlehre nach den Principien der Wissenschaftslehre, (The System of a Theory of Morals as Based on the Science of Knowledge).
Jena und Leipzig: Christian Ernst Gabler, 1798. FIRST EDITION TP + [I]-XVIII + [XIX]-[XX] = Publisher's notices + [XXI-XXII] = Inhalt + [1]-494, small Octavo. (Lauth/Jacob 36; Baumgartner/Jacobs A1.36x) "The practical [side of his system] was expounded in the 'Foundation of Natural Right', c. 1796, and the 'System of a Theory of Morals', 1798" (PMM, p. 147).But Fichte was very far from concentrating exclusively on the theoretical deduction of consciousness. He laid great stress on the moral end of the development of consciousness or, in more concrete terms, on the moral purpose of human existence. And we find him publishing in 1796 the Basis of Natural Right (Grundlage de Naturrechts) and in 1798 The System of Ethics (Das System der Sittenlehre). Both subjects are said to be treated 'according to the principles of the theory of science'... But the works are much more than mere appendages to the Wissenschaftslehre. For they display the true character of Fichte's philosophy, that is, as a system of ethical idealism." (Copelston, 7, I, p. 52) Contemporary pasteboards with gold-lettered label on spine. Spine edges, top and bottom are worn but overall a well preserved and very presentable binding. Internally a very good copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 750.00 other currencies   order no. 5   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
MILL, John Stuart. A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive.
London: Parker, Son and Bourn, West Strand, 1862. FIFTH EDITION Volume 1: TP + [iii]-xvi + [1]-536 + [1]-4 = Publisher's Advertisements; Volume 2: TP + [iii]-xii + half-title + [3]-550 +1 leaf = By the Same Author, Octavo. . This is the fifth edition of Mill's brilliant first book wherein he makes his "first major installment of his comprehensive restatement of an empiricist and utilitarian position." (EP, Vol. 5, p. 315) The book "had a rapid success, beyond the expectations of its author, and was for many years the standard authority with all who took his side in the main philosophical questions. Mill, in fact, was recognized as the great leader of the empirical school... few men have had a more marked influence upon the rising intellect of the time." (DNB) No accurate and comprehensive summary of the book's salient and important points is really possible in so small a space as offered here. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives two and a half full pages of exposition to the work and then devotes another nine pages to an article entitled: "Mill's Methods of Induction". In short, despite over two thousand years of philosophical consideration of logic based on deduction, Mill abandons deduction and attempts and accomplishes an analysis and proof for logic based on the principles of induction working soley from the human experiences of sensation. This book is an incredible tour de force by one of the leading intellects of the English people. This fifth edition contains many corrections and additions that Mill made to the book. Original dark teal boards with almost perfectly preserved paper spine labels (some chipping - especially to volume one - but no loss to text). One signature slightly sprung but overall a really lovely set. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 300.00 other currencies   order no. 6   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
TAINE, Hippolyte-Adolphe. De L'Intelligence (On the Intelligence).
Paris: Hachette, 1870. FIRST EDITION Volume 1: original front wrap + 1 leaf + TP + 1 leaf + [3]-492+ original back wrap; Volume 2: original front wrap + 1 leaf + TP + 1 leaf + [3]-508 + original back wrap, Octavo. Hippolyte Taines's most important work. Regarding the psychology: "Modern psychology.. in France may be said to begin in 1870, when two important books were published, Taine's De L'Intelligence and Ribot's La Psychologie anglaise contemporaine in which the prevailing associationism was well and clearly expounded." (Flugel, A Hundred Years of Psychology). "The history of psychological theories in France entered upon a new phase in 1870. Whatever else may be thought of the work done by Taine, no one would deny his right to be considered the leader of the empirical school and the exponent of concrete practical methods of study." (Brett, History of Psychology) Although Taine's philosophical views were formed early in life under the influence of Spinoza, Hegel and classical science, they were first systematically expounded in this book. The theory of mind presented here is based on Taine's general monism and determinism. In his work on intelligence Taine insists that there are no entities corresponding to words such as "faculty, 'power', 'self'. Psychology for him is the study of facts; and in the self or ego we find no facts except 'the series of events' which are all reducible to sensations. In this line of thought, considered by itself, Taine goes as far as any empiricist could wish. "We think that there are neither minds nor bodies, but simply groups of movements present or possible, and groups of thoughts present or possible." And it is interesting to observe Taine's insistence on the bewitching power of language, which induces philosophers to postulate unreal entities that "vanish when one scrupulously examines the meaning of the words." His empiricism also shows itself in his rejection of the a priori method of Spinoza, a method which can do no more than reveal ideal possibilities. Any knowledge of existing reality must be based on and result from experience. Bound in contemporary green half-linen with marbled boards (with the original wraps bound in) and gilt lettering on the spine. Very minor rubbing to extremities and light foxing throughout. A really beautiful copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Price: USD 925.00 other currencies   order no. 11   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
NIETZSCHE, Friederich. Der Fall Wagner (The Case of Wagner).
Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1888. FIRST EDITION TP + 3 leaves + [1]-57 + [58], Octavo. Schaberg 54. Nietzsche had 1,000 copies of this work privately printed but 500 of them were falsely marked "Second Edition" so there were originally only 500 copies in this state. In mid-1888, Nietzsche returned to the subject of Wagner and produced this polemic against his former friend and mentor whom he attacks in a volley of witty barbs against both the man and his music. By this time, Nietzsche saw Wagner as not just a singular problem but one which was symptomatic of his entire culture - both Wagner and modernity were basically decadent. Both of them, he contends, lack integrity, manifesting instead a type of anarchy in which "life no longer dwells in the whole". A Nietzschean tour-de-force. Lacking the original covers, this copy is wrapped in browned plain paper wraps. Very slight occasional light pencil markings. Minor indentation to right margin throughout. House in an elegant half-leather with marbled boards clamshell bookcase. A very pretty copy of a rare work. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 2,850.00 other currencies   order no. 12   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
NIETZSCHE, Friederich. Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen I: David Strauss (Unconventional Observation I: David Strauss).
Leipzig: E. W. Fritzsch, 1873. FIRST EDITION TP + [1]-101 + [102] = advertisements, Octavo. Schaberg 23a. The first of Nietzsche's Unconventional Observations was an attack on David Strauss the writer who had made his reputation with his scandalous Life of Jesus in 1835. Here Nietzsche attacks his most recent book The Old and the New Faith, which advocated the rejection of the Christian faith in favor of a Darwinian, materialistic and patriotic world-view. Nietzsche accuses Strauss of being a "Cultural Philistine" and denounces him as an exemplar of pseudo-culture. Although erudite, the essay is extremely intemperate and filled with references to many of Nietzsche's scholarly contemporaries. The climax is a literary tour de force, in which Nietzsche cites a litany of malapropisms from Strauss, interspersed with his own barbed comments. For Nietzsche, Strauss's book was the incarnation of the Zeitgeist: unproductive smugness, intellectual snobbery, superficial assimilation of great works of art and new scientific theories, myopic criticism and patronizing praise of even the greatest genius…But what enraged him most was Strauss's comfortable and untroubled renunciation of Christianity, coupled with an easy conviction that Darwin was one of mankind's greatest benefactors and that traditional values could of course be maintained. It is in the present work that Nietzsche first publicly addresses the problem of the derivation of moral values that would infuse so much of his most important work. A plain and simple modern binding with a small gold-lettered label on the spine. A very bright copy with a few underlinings in blue pencil on pages 50-67. Lacking the original loose "Correction" sheet (as usual). Excepting only the modern binding this is a fine, bright copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 750.00 other currencies   order no. 13   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
NIETZSCHE, Friederich. Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen IV: Richard Wagner In Bayreuth (Unconventional Observation IV: Richard Wagner in Bayreuth).
Chemnitz: Ernst Schmeitzner, 1876. FIRST EDITION TP + [3]-98 + 1 leaf, Octavo. Schaberg 27. This,the last Untimely Meditation published, was released to coincide with very first performance at the Bayreuth Festival in July of 1876. This is the last of Nietzsche's works that mentions Wagner favorably and even here the picture presented of Wagner shows some signs of the troubles to come. In Nietzsche's view, the creation of Bayreuth represented the new empire of which it had become one of the cultural centers. It symbolized for Nietzsche "the extirpation of the German spirit in favor of the German Reich." Nietzsche actually agonized over releasing the book and significantly rewrote some sections to palliate the expression of his misgivings about his erstwhile friend and idol, but he was tempted by the possibility that at last he might have a best seller on his hands. Even while working on the present pro-Wagner essay, Nietzsche had already filled his notebooks with observations on the rift that now separated him spiritually from the composer. In finally breaking with Wagner a few years later, Nietzsche saw himself "rejecting a mass movement and a Weltanschauung to which he could not subscribe." Despite Nietzsche's ambivalence, Wagner was sufficiently impressed with the book to send a copy to his mentor King Ludwig. Nonetheless, the book, like all of Nietzsche's works, sold poorly. Contemporary drab boards with a hand written paper label on the spine. Spine edges a bit rubbed. The title page is separated from binding at the gutter on the bottom four inches. Otherwise, a very nice copy with the slightly yellowed pages that is typical of this edition. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 850.00 other currencies   order no. 15   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
NIETZSCHE, Friederich. Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols).
Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1889. FIRST EDITION TP + 3 leaves + [1]-144 + cover, Octavo. Schaberg 56. Nietzsche had 1,000 copies of this work privately printed. Originally to be called "A Psychologist at Leisure," Nietzsche changed the title at the suggestion of his friend, Gast and the book was released a few weeks after Nietzsche collapse in Turin. The "Idols" that Nietzsche singles out here are those of the philosophers and the moralists and the Preface clearly states that the work at hand is to be "the revaluation of all values". Socrates and Christianity are particular targets although modern Germany and other contemporary ideas are also taken to task in the normally acerbic style of the author. (This book also contains some of Nietzsche's most frequently quoted phrases beginning with Aphorism #8: "What does not kill me only makes me stronger".) Early 20th Century binding with gold lettering on spine. The original rear cover - a bit smudged - has been bound in. Overall, a lovely copy of one of Nietzsche's most popular works. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 2,100.00 other currencies   order no. 17   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
NIETZSCHE, Friederich. Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen (Unconventional Observations).
Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1893. SECOND EDITION Volume 1: TP + [III]-XV + 2 leaves + [1]-206 + 1 leaf;Volume 2: Opp TP + TP + 2 leaves + [3]-205 + [206] + 1 leaf, Octavo. Krummel, II-V b, p. 114. This copy constitutes the second volume of the soon to be aborted Collected Works edited by Gast whose introduction appears as a forward here. Scattered pencil underlinings and marginalia. A good copy. Bound with both original paper front covers in a mid-20th Century board binding. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 300.00 other currencies   order no. 18   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
PROUDHON, Pierre-Joseph. Qu'est-ce que la propriéte? (What is Property?).
Paris: Librairie De Garnier Freres, 1849. LATER EDITION Half-title + TP + [V]-XVI + [1]-252 + [253]-[254] = Table des Matieres, Octavo. This, his first book, was Proudhon's most notorious and the one that made him famous at the age of thirty-two. He is often called the "father of anarchism". "Hailed by Marx as 'the first decisive, vigorous and scientific examination' of the institution of property, gained notoriety because in one passage Proudhon defined property as 'theft'. The author's love of telling phrases distorted the nature of his argument, for [this book] was in fact an investigation of abuses, that had entered into the institution of property rather than a condemnation of property itself. The arguments which Proudhon put forward in this early book, on the nature of property and the faults of government, are those which he elaborated and gave a deeper philosophical backing in his later writings." (EP, Vol. 6, p. 507) Original wraps with some wear and slight tears at the edges. The spine is cracked and some of the lettering has been lost both top and bottom. Otherwise, a lovely, uncut copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 75.00 other currencies   order no. 31   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
HEIDEGGER, Martin. Vom Wesen des Grundes (On the Nature of Reason).
Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1929. FIRST EDITION TP + [71]-110 + 1 blank leaf, Octavo. First edition offprint which appeared in the Festschrift published that year for Heidegger's teacher, Edmund Husserl ("Sonderdruck aus der Festschrift fur Edmund Husserl"). Original brown wraps. Frayed and a bit chipped at top and bottom of spine. Otherwise, a very lovely copy of a rare piece by Heidegger. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 250.00 other currencies   order no. 38   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
FREUD, Sigmund. Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams).
Leipzig und Wien: Franz Deuticke, 1900. FIRST EDITION TP + 1 leaf = 2pp. (Vorbemerkung) + [1]-371 +[372]-[374] = Litteraturverzeichnis + [375] = Inhalt, Octavo. Actually published on November 4, 1899 in an edition of 600 copies. The book sold so slowly that the publisher did not risk a second edition until 1909. None the less, this work (along with perhaps Das Kapital and The Origin of the Species) would prove to be one of the most influential book on the 20th Century, the Century of Psychology. "This is unquestionably Freud's greatest single work. It contains all the basic components of psychoanalytic theory and practice: the erotic nature of dreams, the 'Oedipus complex', the libido, and the rest; all related to the background of the 'unconscious', later to be called the 'sub-conscious'." (PMM, p. 234). This book is the foundational work of the modern psychological movement. In addition, Freud's ideas have had an incalculable influence on many other aspects modern thought and his terminology has entered our everyday language. "By working to uncover the various motivations and desires behind conscious mental functioning, Freud changed the way people perceived not only themselves, but also the world around them." (NYPL Books of the Century 88). Printing and the Mind of Man, 389. Contemporary quarter-leather with green marbled boards. Spine with gilt lettering for author's name, title and number in lowest compartment ("C. II."). Housed in a custom clamshell box. Internally, clean and bright. Overall, a beautiful copy of a major work in Western Civilization. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 22,500.00 other currencies   order no. 45   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (Foundation of the Philosophy of Rights).
Berlin: Duncker Und Humblot, 1840. SECOND EDITION THUS TP + [v]-xvi + 1 leaf = Inhalt + 1 leaf = Half-title + [3]-432, Octavo. in 1833, Eduard Gans edited and published the second edition of Hegel's book [first published in 1821]. This is the second edition of that version. In 1821. 'The Outline of the Philosophy of Right' appeared, in which his final system of a sociology of the perfectly organized state, such as an ideal Prussia might be, was laid down. He rejected the idealistic aspirations of the reformers, their vague assertions of individual freedom being, in his judgment, trifling compared with the all-important concept of government... The [Grundlinien] turns away from the apparent chaos of the democratic advocates of individual right in favour of an overwhelming sense that liberty cannot exist apart from order, and that the vital connection of all parts of the body politic is the source of all good." (PMM, p. 171). Two names have been scratched off the front free end paper. Title page a bit foxed but otherwise a tight, clean copy in a beautiful contemporary half-leather binding with lovely scroll work and gilt lettering on the spine. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 275.00 other currencies   order no. 46   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
KANT, Immanuel. Critik der practischen Vernunft (Critique of Practical Reason).
Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1792. SECOND EDITION 1 Blank leaf + TP + [3]-292 + 1 blank leaf, small Octavo. Warda 114. According to Rosenkranz, this edition contains a number of important textural changes from the first edition. The second major Critik, in which Kant undertakes a more elaborate survey of moral concepts and assumptions than in his Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten 1785). "The Critique of Practical Reason aims at the coordination of human intellect and conscience, stressing that moral action may be accompanied by pleasure, but should on no account be determined by it. Moral conduct should be guided only by criterion of duty, which Kant considered the sole foundation of human freedom, this concept resting upon the submission of the individual will to the sublime moral law." (Garden Ltd., #162) Contemporary leather boards a bit worn, especially on the edges. Rebacked with modern leather strip with gilt lettering. Small bookplate on inside front cover. A bit foxed. Otherwise, quite lovely. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 550.00 other currencies   order no. 48   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
KANT, Immanuel. Critik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason).
Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1787. SECOND EDITION TP + 2 leaves = Dedication + [VII]-XLIV = Vorrede + [1]-884, Octavo. Warda 60 With pages 454 through 489 unnumbered as usual. The so-called "B" text which Kant heavily revised and which must be compared and contrasted with the original First Edition "A" text. Kant included here his own substantive amplifications, corrections, and improvements which form the basis of all later editions. Kant refers to the changes in his new Introduction though there are many other alterations that he does not mention there. Although this is considered the "definitive edition", philosophers still think it necessary to have both versions of the text available when studying the work. Kant's masterpiece, the book that made him world-famous, and arguably the most important book of philosophy published in modern times. "Kant's great achievement was to conclude finally the line on which philosophical speculation had proceeded in the eighteenth century, and to open up a new and more comprehensive system of dealing with the problems of philosophy'" (PMM, p. 137). Having been woken from his "dogmatic slumbers" by his reading of Hume, Kant went on to effect a "Copernican" revolution in philosophy -- the effects of which have not yet subsided. Contemporary half-leather with original marbled boards which are quite worn. The spine is worn and exposed for the first inch down from the top of the front spine edge. Spine with gilt decorations and title that are very hard to read due to cracking from use of the book. Corners a bit bumped. Title page a bit browned. Pencil underlining and marginalia throughout. But for the extensive pencil underlining and marginalia, this would be a very nice contemporary copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 2,950.00 other currencies   order no. 54   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
SPINOZA, Benedict. Renati Des Cartes Principiorum Philosophiæ + Tractatus Theologico-Politicus + Opera Posthuma.
Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz, 1663, 1670, 1677. FIRST EDITIONS FIRST EDITIONS OF SPINOZA'S THREE WORKSIN ONE VOLUME. Renati Des Cartes Principiorum Philosophiæ Pars I, & II, More Geometrico demonstratæ… Accesserunt Ejusdem Cogitata Metaphysica, Johannem Riewerts, Amstelodami [Amsterdam], 1663. 1 blank leaf + TP + 4 leaves = Præfatio + 3 leaves = Index + 1-140, small Quarto. First Edition. (Kingma-Offenberg 1) [bound with] An Engraved Portrait of Spinoza (the one commonly claimed to belong in some editions of the Opera Posthuma) [bound with] Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Continens Differtationes aliquot, Henricum Künrath [Jan Rieuwertsz], Hamburgi [Amsterdam], 1670. TP + 4 leaves = Præfatio + 1 leaf = Index Capitum + 1-233, small Quarto. First Edition, Fifth Issue (?). (Kingma-Offenberg 7) [bound with] Opera Posthuma, Quorum series post Præfationem exhibetur., [Jan Rieuwertsz], [Amsterdam], 1677. TP + 18 leaves = Præfatio + half title + [1]-614 + 16 leaves = Index Rerum + half title + 1-112 + 4 leaves = Indiculus & Errata, small Quarto (8" x 6"). First Edition. (Kingma-Offenberg 24) A SINGLE VOLUME CONTAINING FIRST EDITIONS OF ALL OF THE WORKS THAT SPINOZA PUBLISHED IN HIS LIFETIME. The first book (Renati Des Cartes) is the only one to carry his name as author - the other two being published with no author listed. The second work (Tractatus) lists a false publisher and place of printing while the third (Opera) leaves out any mention of either of these items altogether. All this secrecy and subterfuge was driven by the intense religious and political climate in Holland during Spinoza's lifetime, by the charges of atheism leveled against him, by his expulsion from the Jewish temple and by his intensely felt desire to avoid being drawn into any public controversy. The manuscript for the Opera - which he had been reluctant to publish for fear that it would provoke further accusations of atheism - was delivered to his publisher on the day of his death. Bound in contemporary vellum, which is in remarkable shape for its age but a bit scuffed and soiled as would be expected. There is a trimmed and folded portrait of Descartes in mezzotint by Pet. Schenk of Amsterdam glued onto the verso of the front free end paper. WITH NUMEROUS CONTEMPORARY HANDWRITTEN ANNOTATIONS, INCLUDING CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS TO THE CONTENT, WHICH ARE NOT RECORDED ON THE ERRATA LIST - for instance, the editor Jelles is mentioned; the recipient of the letter on p. 465 is identified as Lud. Meyer, on p. 531 as Jerrig Jelles; and on p. 541 as Lamburtus de Velthuysen; with several letters dated exactly, etc. With traces of damp at the beginning, some other parts with light dampstains and faint browning. Overall, an excellent contemporary copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 28,500.00 other currencies   order no. 55   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb. Reden an die deutsche Nation, (Addresses to the German Nation).
Berlin: Realshulbuchhandlung, 1808. FIRST EDITION TP + [3]-490 + 1 leaf = Druckfehler, small Octavo. (Lauth/Jacob 66; Baumgarnter/Jacobs A1.66x) In this book, Fichte "advocates the cultivation of philanthropic devotion as the guiding aim of national university education, he declared that the moral ideal, always sovereign, is never actualized in any historical period: it 'never is, but eternally ought to be.' Fichte was not concerned with the historical fortunes of social projects or institutions, but rather with their moral worth. What matters is not whether I succeed, but whether I deserve to prevail, whether the end to which I bend my duty really merits my loyal devotion." (EP, III, p. 196) This work has been wrongly interpreted as the source of pan-Germanism while in fact the work sought to combat just that. Fichte declares that it is infinitely more important for the Germans to develop their national culture whose support is society than to depend on external victories that have been obtained by the state for cultural domination. Since he urged that the national genius be realized in the objective and unpersonifiable community and not in the will of the state, there was nothing aggressive about Fichte's nationalism. Recent plain wraps using 18th-Century paper. Title page repaired to correct a 1" square cut out with information missing just below the ornamental design (part of the publishing data is gone). Title page just a bit dirty but all other pages are remarkably clean and handsome. An uncut copy. Except as noted, this is really a lovely copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 950.00 other currencies   order no. 57   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
BERGSON, Henri. Essai sur les Données Immédiates de la Conscience (An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness),
Paris: Félix Alcan, 1889. FIRST EDITION TP + Dedication Page + [VII]-VIII + [1]-182 + 1 leaf = Table des Matières, Octavo. First edition of Bergson's first book. "This thin volume contains… a complete system of metaphysics. It bears all the traits of an early work of genius in which… the germs of the author's entire philosophy are contained." (Müller-Freienfels, pp. 89-92) BOUND AFTER THE SECOND EDITION OF Henri Marion's De la Solidarité Morale. Bound in contemporary half-leather with gilt lettering on the spine. There is significant pencil underlining in the Bergson book. A good copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 500.00 other currencies   order no. 61   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
CONDILLAC, Étienne Bonnot de. Traité des sensations (Treatise on Sensation0.
London & Paris: Chez de Bure l'ainé, 1754. FIRST EDITION In one volume: 1 blank leaf + half title +TP + [iii]-vi + [1]-345 + half title + TP + [1]-335 + [336] = Errata, 12 mo. Condillac's great classic of psychology and his most important work. It had a double purpose: to show how modifications of mind, or impressions received by way of the senses, could give rise automatically, without reference to unobservable spirits or innate ideas, to all our mental operations, and at the same time to defend the existence of an external, material world. The first purpose was familiar, the second required a new approach, the rejection of the assumption that sensations or impressions are images occasioned by external material things. (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Étienne Bonnot de Condillac was a philosopher of the Enlightenment, psychologist, economist, and educator; through his work he helped to bring about the dominance of the ideas of Locke and Newton over the philosophy of Descartes. Condillac's writings fall into three categories: the philosophical, the educational, and the economic. His systematization, exposition and development of Newton's empiricism, constitute four books, the most important of which, Traité des sensations, "no student of the history of philosophy can afford to neglect''. (IESS, vol 3, pp. 211-3). Contemporary mottled calf with spines gilt in compartments with floral design. Several letters chipped off title on spine. Front hinge splitting but firm. First half title creased. Text a bit browned. Overall, a very nice copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 2,500.00 other currencies   order no. 66   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
CONDILLAC, Étienne Bonnot de. La langue des calculs, (The language of calculations).
Paris: Charles Houel, 1798. FIRST EDITION TP + [1]-484 + [485] = Errata, Octavo. The rare first issue of Condillac's last major work. These sheets were also re-issued in the Oeuvres de Condillac but with "Oeuvres de Condillac …" printed at the head of a cancelled half title sheet and a 3-page errata (for the whole Oeuvres) included at the rear. This book - with its famous opening sentence: "Toute langue est une méthode analytique, et toute méthode analytique est une langue" (Any language is an analytical method, and any analytical method is a language) - is of considerable importance on two fronts. The emphasis on mathematical formalism and algebraization was not only the keystone to the pioneering linguistics and the analytical theory of language as developed by Carnap and the Vienna logicians but it also served as an important step in the mathemetizing of language which became the cornerstone of modern computing. Later marbled boards with leather spine and gilt lettering. TP with waterstain to upper right quadrant and worn top corner. Otherwise, a lovely, uncut copy of this important work. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 500.00 other currencies   order no. 70   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
LANGE, Friederich Albert. Geschichte des Materialismus (History of Materialism).
Iserlohn: J. Baedeker, 1876. THIRD EDITION 1 blank leaf + half-title + leaf with portrait on verso + TP + Dedication page + [vii]-xviii + half-title + [3]-334 + half-title + TP + [v]-xiii + half-title + [1]-573 + 1 blank leaf, Octavo. "Lange's importance in philosophy rests mainly on his brilliantly written History of Materialism and Critique of Its Present Significance (1866). This work gave support to the opponents of materialism and helped to stimulate the revival of interest in Kant..." When it was first published it had a profound effect upon Nietzsche who initially considered it to be the "most significant philosophical work to be published in the last one hundred years" (letter to Hermann Mushache, November 1866, KGB I.2, p. 184). Beautifully preserved contemporary half-leather binding with marbled boards (overall with just a bit of wear). Spine with gilt decorations and gilt lettering. The inside front flyleaf has an almost full-page pencil sketch attached. It is quite accomplished and looks to be a tentative design for the owner's bookplate (Romund J. Talien?)-- dated 1918. Otherwise, a clean and handsome copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 150.00 other currencies   order no. 85   details     inquire
offered by: Athena Rare Books   (USA)
FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb. Appellation an das Publicum über die durch ein Kurf. Sächs Confiscationsrescript ihm beigemessenen atheistischen Aeusserungen. Eine Schrift, die man erst zu lesen bittet, ehe man sie confiscirt. (Appeal to the Public Concerning the Accusation of the Expression of Atheistic Opinions).
Jena und Leipzig: Christian Ernst Gabler, 1799. FIRST EDITION, THIRD PRINTING TP + [1]-116 (mis-paginated, tthe last four pages after page 110 are 113, 114, 115, 116), small Octavo. (Lauth/Jacob 40b; Baumgartner/Jacobs A1.40bx). A popular work that required three printings in the first year. This is the third -- most easily identified by the full spelling of Fichte's title ("ordentlichen Professors") on the title page rather than the abbreviation used in the first printing, ("ordentl. Prof."). (The second printing was by a different printer.) Fichte's major statement in his own defense in the famous Atheismusstreit (Atheism Controversy) that embroiled the German intelligentsia in the closing years of the 18th century. The controversy was so significant that it takes up three full pages in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy (EP. Vol. I, pp. 189-192) -- as is worthy of an argument that actively involved Fichte, Goethe and even Immanuel Kant. Fichte had published an article in the Philosophiches Journal, of which he was co-editor, which lead to the publication of an anonymous pamphlet accusing him of atheism. The controversy quickly degenerated into a noisy national scandal involving religion, politics and academic freedom. In the end, Fichte was forced to resign his position at Jena -- leading to ten years in the academic hinterlands before he was called to the University of Berlin in 1810. Original green printed wraps which are detached along half of te top, front edge. Waterstain on upper outer corner of all large pages (some are much smaller) from pages 49 to 102. An uncut and fragile copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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STEWART, Dugald. Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind.
London: A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1792. FIRST EDITION 1 blank leaf + TP + Dedication Page + 1 leaf = Advertisement + [ix]-xii = Contents + [1]-566 (misnumbered for 569) + [570] = errata + 1 blank leaf, Quarto. Stewart was the philosopher "with whom the Scottish philosophy of common sense acquired the dignity of an institution" (EP, VIII, p. 16). This, his main philosophical exposition, was also his first work and, despite the addition of two further volumes in 1814 and 1827, it remained his most important philosophical contribution. Stewart succeeded Ferguson to the chair of moral philosophy in Edinburgh in 1785 and followed in the footsteps of his teacher Thomas Reid who had espoused "the philosophy of common sense". "Stewart saw himself as following Reid in a Baconian reformation of the philosophy of mind. Natural philosophy became science, he held, when inquiry, freed from metaphysical conjecture, was directed toward discovering by observation and experiment the laws governing the connection of physical phenomena" (EP, VIII, p. 16). Stewart's pupils included James Mill (father of John Stuart) and he influenced both of the Mills (who attacked the Scottish school of common sense) and William James whose preface to The Varieties of Religious Experience explicitly credits Stewart's philosophy. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards professionally rebacked with new endpapers. A contemporary looking spine with five raised bands and a gilt on black label. A very crisp and clean copy with a bit of age-toning to the first few and last leaves only. Overall, a lovely copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 850.00 other currencies   order no. 87   details     inquire
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LA METTRIE, Julien Offray de. L'Homme Machine (Man, the Machine).
Leyde: Elie Luzac, Fils, 1748. SECOND EDITION 1 blank leaf + 1 leaf with engraved print on verso + 1 leaf with handwriting identifying this book and another by Voltaire (previously bound in here) + TP + [I]-[iv] = Avertissement + [vi]-[xix] = Dedicace + [1]-109 + 1 blank leaf, 12mo. Sometimes referred to as the "X" issue of the First Edition but, more accurately, the Second Edition. Stoddard 31. The very rare second edition of La Mettrie's L'Homme Machine - the first edition (numbering 108 pages and sometimes referred to as the "W" issue) having been destroyed on orders of the Consistoire of Leyden in December of 1747 with almost no copies surviving. Tchemerzine (VI, p. 465) reports only 6 to 8 extant copies of this edition - but incorrectly claims a TP date of 1747. Tchemerzine then lists a 148 page edition as being the next edition issued after this rare first edtion but this has since been proved to be a later piracy and is sometimes referred to as the "Y" issue. Roger Stoddard, in his recent bibliography on La Mettrie, lists the rare 108 page version (#30) as the true first edition. He differentiates between two 109 page versions (#31 & #32) by noting that the first has a 6 line quote from Voltaire on the TP while the second has a 7 line quote. Although both of these books have title pages listing 1748 (MDCCXLVIII) as the publication date, Stoddard notes that the first (#31) was published in "1752 or before" and the second (#32) in 1764. This copy has the 6-line quote from Voltaire. This book marks the starting point of modern materialism and was the most forceful expression of the anti-religious sentiment of the Enlightenment. In La Mettrie's "human machine' there was no essential difference between conscious and unconscious behavior, no freedom of the will, no rational soul and no moral good beyond the perfectibility of the mechanism. In its final consequence, this doctrine of physiological determinism leaves no freedom to the individual and all human actions are intrinsically amoral. Recently rebound in period style with gilt decorations on the spine and gilt lettering on a red field. A single stamp to the TP and to the page preceding it. Otherwise, an absolutely lovely copy of an extremely rare little book. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 6,500.00 other currencies   order no. 93   details     inquire
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HOLDING, Elisabeth Sanxay. Who's Afraid?
New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1940. FIRST EDITION Lovely copy in a lovely dust jacket. Pretty,clean and unmarked. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 150.00 other currencies   order no. 108   details     inquire
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ALLAN, Dennis. House of Treason.
New York: The Greystone Press, 1936. FIRST EDITION A very pretty copy but without the dust jacket. The spine is very lightly sunned but otherwise this is very good to near fine copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 150.00 other currencies   order no. 110   details     inquire
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PARGETER, Edith. Hortentius, Friend of Nero.
New York: The Greystone Press, 1937. FIRST EDITION Very nice copy of the author's first book (but without the dust jacket). The spine is just a bit sunned but otherwise this is a lovely, clean, unmarked copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 150.00 other currencies   order no. 111   details     inquire
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PAINE, Gustav S. The Learned Men.
New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Company, 1959. FIRST EDITION "The almost unkonw story of the scholars of differing beliefs and minor literary talents who together created a masterpiece - the King James Bible." Fine in fine dust jacket. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 75.00 other currencies   order no. 113   details     inquire
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MEYER, Jerome S. Connectograms and Triagrams.
New York: The Greystone Press, 1941. FIRST EDITION Spine a bit sunned. Without the dust jacket but still holding the original pencil that was provided with the book! Very good. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 100.00 other currencies   order no. 114   details     inquire
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HEMINGWAY, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. FIRST EDITION The book's in pretty nice shape... at least very good. The dust jacket however is pretty well beat up with chips and rips to front, back and spine. All the first edition points. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 300.00 other currencies   order no. 115   details     inquire
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CZERNIN, Count Ferdinand. Europe - Going, Going, Gone!
New York: The Greystone Press, 1939. FIRST EDITION Very nice copy - but without the dust jacket. Front cover and spine with bright printing in two colors. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 50.00 other currencies   order no. 116   details     inquire
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CARNAP, Rudolf. Physikalisches Begriffsbuldung (Concept Formation in Physics).
Karlsruhe in Baden: G. Braun, 1926. FIRST EDITION Original front wrap + 1 leaf with Series (Wissen und Wirken) information on verso + TP + 1-66 + [67]-[68] = Publisher's ads + original rear wrap. Octavo. An early work by Carnap presaging his landmark Aufbau - which was published two years later. A well-preserved copy in original wraps. The black-ink seal of the Philosophisches Institut in Wien (Vienna) in the center of the front cover and also of the title page. With the black-ink stamped number "1624 S" in the upper right corner of the front wraps. Overall, a lovely copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 250.00 other currencies   order no. 118   details     inquire
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[WILSON, Bill]. Alcoholics Anonymous.
New York: Works Publishing Company, 1941. FIRST EDITION, SECOND PRINTING Works Publishing Company, New York City, 1941. Half-title + TP + v-viii + half-title + 1-400, large Octavo. The second printing of the Big Book was necessitated by the Jack Alexander article in the Saturday Evening Post. It had a press run of 5,000 copies. The most important change to this printing was the REWORDING OF THE 12TH STEP and the ADDITION OF THE APPENDIX ON "SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE." With a professionally restored, original dust jacket . Gilt lettering on spine is approximately 95% intact. Internally, the book is clean and bright with no underlining or dog ears. An excellent copy of this book. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 9,500.00 other currencies   order no. 121   details     inquire
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PLATO [Jowett Translation]. The Dialogues of Plato translated into English by B. Jowett, M.A.
New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1871. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION of this translation. Volume 1:1 leaf + half-title + TP + 1 leaf = Dedication + [vii]-x + 1 leaf = Contents + half-title + [3]-681 + 1 leaf = 2 pp. ads + 1 blank leaf; Volume 2: 2 leaves + half-title + TP + 1 leaf = Contents + half-title + [3]-607 + 1 leaf = 2pp. ads + [1]-[6] = 6 pp. ads; Volume 3: 1 leaf + half-title + TP + 1 leaf = Contents + half-title + [3]-599 + 1 leaf; Volume 4: 1 leaf + half-title + TP + 1 leaf = Contents + half-title + [3]-594 + 3 leaves = 6pp. ads + 1 leaf; Octavo. Benjamin Jowett's landmark translation which, 125 years later, is still the most popular English version. It was the first complete English translation of Plato by a single person. This is the first American edition, published in the same year as the British first. The advertisements included in volumes 1,2 & 4 refer to this set as being "Just Published" and note it as being "One half the price of the English edition". Although the volumes are not very different in size, the text is much more cramped in this American version when compared to the original English one. Bound in original reddish-brown boards with gilt lettering on the spine. Owners signature (Lois R. Might) on first blank leaf of volume 1. Small booksellers label affixed to inside back cover of each volume. Minor wear and tears to head and foot of spine and some slight wear to spine edges. Otherwise a bright, clean fine set. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Price: USD 600.00 other currencies   order no. 126   details     inquire
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GLISSON, Francis. Anatomia hepatis, Cui Praemittuntur Quædam ad rem Anatomicam Universè Spectantia.
London: Typeset by Du-Gardianis for Octaviani Pullein, 1654. FIRST EDITION Half title page with small graphic in lower right corner + TP + Dedication page + [i]-[iv] = Lectori Benevolo + [v]-[xlii] = Totius Operis Syllabus + 1-458 + [459]-[471] = Index, Octavo. Contains one (of two) folding engraved plates, engraved text illustrations and text woodcuts. This is the first English book dedicated to a single organ, the liver, and it also presents a complete description and analysis of the digestive system. Glisson based this work on the original research that he done during the previous decade. Glisson determined that blood passes from the portal vein to the vena cave. He also proved tha the lymph flows not to the liver, as was then generally thought, but from it, passing into the recently discovered common receptacle. This capsule, which Glisson was the first to accurately describe (and so named for him), is "an envelope of fibrous tissue that encloses the protal vein and hepatic artery (the two vessels carrying blood to the liver) and becomes contnuous with the fibrous scaffolding of the whole organ" (Lilly). He also described the sphincter of the bile duct in this work. "Educated at Cambridge, where he later served as Regius Professor of Physic, Glisson was part of the extraordinary ferment in medicine and the life sciences that occured in the two English universities in the earlier seventeenth century. Like his influential colleague and friend, William Harvey, Glisson epitomized the English style of biological research: he was theoretically conservative and non-dogmatic; and at the same time he was committed to a rigorous program of experimentation, precise observation, and accurate description. His principal publications, especially the Anatomia hepatis, join an experimental exactitude and direct observation of the particular with a felt concern to preserve basic Aristotelian and Galenic traditions of natural philosophy. . . . Glisson's classic work on the liver . . . was based on dissections that Glisson had done over a decade earlier. It was the first work to recast fundamentally the physiology of the abdominal organs, to delineate the structure and function of the liver, and to identify and describe the fibrous tissue encasing the liver (Glisson's capsule). It also introduced Glisson's important concept of 'irritability,' in which he argued that irritation was the organism's way of recognizing substances to be expelled. The property of irritability was thus basic to the health of the organism" (Grolier Club, 100 Books Famous in Medicine, 29). Contemporary calf, beautifully rebacked in period style with four raised bands and gilt lettering on the spine. Title page with tiny, contemporary, owner's ("W. Earnshaw") ink inscription below title page device. Very lightly dampstained on the fore edge of several pages. Lacks folding plate 1. Overall, a very nice copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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LOCKE, John. [Essay Concerning Human Understanding] Extrait d'un Livre Anglois qui n'est pas encore publié, intitulé Essai Philosophique concernant L'Entendement, où l'on montre quelle est l'étenduë de nos connoissances certaines, & la maniere dont nous y pervenons. Communiqué par Monsieur Locke. [in] Bibliotheque Universelle et Historique, Volume VIII.
Amsterdam: Chez Wolfgang, Waesberge, Boom & van Someren, 1688. FIRST EDITION 1 blank leaf + TP + [i]-[ii] = Errata for Volume VII + [iii]-[x] = Table des Livres + 1-538 + [539]-[560] = Indices des Matieres + 1 blank leaf with a folding plate between pp. 386/87. 12mo. (131 X 70 mm.). Yolton 273 & 265. Extrait d'un Livre Anglois qui n'est pas encore publié, intitulé Essai Philosophique concernant L'Entendement, où l'on montre quelle est l'étenduë de nos connoissances certaines, & la maniere dont nous y pervenons. Communiqué par Monsieur Locke. (pp. 49-142) and a Review of Newton's "Principia Mathematica" (pp. 553-59), [in] Bibliotheque Universelle et Historique, Volume VIII. THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF LOCKE'S ESSAY IN ANY FORM. The first appearance in any form of Locke's Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, the most celebrated work of philosophy in the English language. This is also the principal form in which the work was known on the Continent prior to French and Latin translations of the full work which were not produced until 1700 and 1701 respectively. "At a time when few people on the Continent could read English, while French had supplanted Latin as the international cultural language of Western Europe, Locke thus sought a way to test the reaction of continental readers to his views, before sending to the press the manuscript of his Essay. In fact it was through this French abridgment that his philosophy first became known to Bayle and Leibniz." (Bonno, "The Diffusion and Influence of Locke's Essay...." in A Locke Miscellany). Locke prepared the condensation in English and submitted it for publication to his friend, Jean Leclerc, the editor of the Bibliotheque Universelle et Historique, who made the French translation. Locke subsequently had a small number of copies of Leclerc's translation published separately (Yolton 274), adding a dedication to Lord Pembroke. Ironically, Locke's manuscript did not survive and the first English-language appearance of the "Extract," in The Young Students Library (1692), was a re-translation from the French (Yolton 275). "The most important Lockean piece in the Bibliotheque Universelle was of course the summary of the Essay that appeared in 1688, in volume VIII. The abridgment is astonishingly brief and very clear; and Locke obviously liked it himself, since he caused it to be printed up alone and distributed among his particular friends." (Cole, "John Locke in the Republic of Letters," in A Locke Miscellan). "Locke conjectured - with good reason - that a wide distribution of the epitome would stimulate a demand for the publication of the Essay as a whole; and, as the book was a long one, some such assurance of public demand was important.... Locke also hoped to receive from readers of the epitome comments and criticisms which might help him improve or correct faults in the Essay before publishing it in full. Such criticisms were expressly solicited in a note at the end of the epitome in the Bibliotheque Universelle, but...omitted from the reprint...." (Cranston, John Locke). Note that Cranston asserts (p. 293) that Locke wrote almost everything which appeared in the Bibliotheque Universelle between July 1687 and February 1688, which would include pp. 1-261 of this Volume VIII, but this claim does not seem to be accepted by other scholars. The volume also includes a review by Locke of Netwon's Principia and, as Cole observes, "It is pleasant to think of Locke...[as] introducing Newton to the French-speaking world." Contemporary vellum. The spine has been recently restored in authentic period style. Bookplate of the Butler University School of Religion on the inside front cover and an inoffensive circlular blindstamp to the title page. A very lovely copy of this work. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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DESCARTES, Rene. Opera Philosophica, Editio Secunda.
Amsterdam: Ludivicum Elzevirium, 1650. SECOND COLLECTED EDITION Half title + TP + 3 leave = Dedicatoria + 9 leaves = Epistola Authoris + 7 leaves = Index + 1-302 + TP + 7 leaves = Index + 1-316 + TP + 11 leaves = Epistolae + [1]-98 + 3 leaves = Index + TP + 4 leaves = Epistola + 1 leaf = Contenta + [1]-191 + TP + 3-164 + half title + 3-88 + end paper, small Quarto [6"w x 8"h]. OPERA PHILOSOPHICA, EDITIO SECUNDA, [comprised of] Principia Philosophiæ. (Principles of Philosophy), (1650) [bound with] Specimina Philosophiæ: seu Dissertatio de Methodo Rectè regendæ rationis, & veritatis in scientiis investigandæ: Dioptrice, et Meteora. (The Proofs of Philosophy: The Discourse on the Method of Properly conducting the reason & seeking for truth in the sciences: Dioptics and Meteors) (1650) [bound with] Passiones Animæ. (The Passions of the Soul) (1650) [bound with] Meditationes De Prima Philosophia, in quibus Dei existensia & animæ humanæ à corpore distinctio, demonstrantur. (Meditations on First Philosophy in which the existence of God and the distinction between mind and body is demonstrated) (1654) [bound with] Appendix, continens Objectiones Quintas & Septimas in Renati Des-Cartes Meditationes de Primâ Philosophiâ (Appendix, Five and Seven limiting Objections to Rene Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy) (1654) [bound with] Epistola Renati Des Cartes Ad celeberrimum Virum D.[omino] Gisbertum Voetium (Letters of Rene Descartes to the celebrated Gysbertus Voetius). Descartes published his first book - which contained the famous Discourse on Method - in 1637 and died in 1650. It is almost impossible to overestimate the influence and importance of the writings he produced in those thirteen years. This second collected edition, containing all of his major writings, was published in the year he died. This was a popular edition and it was the one that Spinoza owned and used as his reference for Descartes (Nadler, p. 166). The preliminary half-title states: "RENATI / DES-CARTES / OPERA / PHILOSOPHICA. / EDITIO SECUNDA / Ab Auctore recognita" beneath which someone has (inexplicably) written in faded ink "1656". According to Guibert (pp. 229-30) the Opera Secunda was made up of the Principia, Specimina and Passiones and sometime included Meditationes De Prima Philosophia. The verso of the preliminary half-title list all four of these as being included in the Second Opera. The first three volumes are indeed published in 1650 but the copy of the Meditationes included here is dated 1654 rather than the 1650 edition called for by Guibert. The first edition of Opera Philosophica had been published by Elzevirium in 1644 (Guibert, pp. 229-30). The Principia (1650) - originally published in Latin - is the Fourth Edition and the Second Latin Edition. The first Latin edition was printed in 1644. This was followed by two French editions in 1647. (Guibert, pp. 118-22) The Specimina (1650) - originally published in French - is the Latin translation of the Discourse on Method, Dioptics and Meteors and is the Third Edition of the Discourse and the Second Latin Edition, the first having been printed in 1644. The first French Edition was published in 1637. (Guibert, pp. 14-16, 104-5) The Passiones (1650) - originally published in French - is perhaps the Eighth Edition and certainly the Second Latin Edition, the first having been printed in a 12mo., 242 page edition in the same year by Elzevirium. Both of these were preceded by the original French edition of 1649 and five French editions of 1650. This is the first quarto edition of the work. (Guibert, pp. 150-9) [Guibert does not specifically identify the priority of the 1650 editions so this could conceivably be anywhere from the third to the eighth edition.] The Meditationes (1654) - originally published in Latin - [here printed in three parts to include the Appendix and the Epistola] is the Sixth Edition and the Fifth Latin Edition (the others being printed in 1641, 1642, 1644 and 1650). It was also preceded by a single French edition in 1647. (Guibert, pp. 42-52) Contemporary full vellum with embossed emblem on front and back covers. Binding is soiled and a bit worn overall (as would be expected) and the front cover has a couple of dark stains (half inch wide by 1.5" and 2.5" long) and a small (2" diameter) circular stain. The covers do not "bow out" as is common with vellum bindings. Hand lettering on the spine ("Renati-Des Cartes. / Principia / Philosophiae.") with four raised bands. Spine just a bit worn, top and bottom. Old, faded signature to front free end paper (W. A. Trounton). The lightest of water stains (1" triangle at outside, upper corner) on ten of the first nineteen leaves following the initial TP. Otherwise, the text is in remarkably good shape. Woodcut illustrations in the text; title-page devices. Pencil note on inside rear cover: "Collated & Complete / B. Quaritch / HR". Overall a well-preserved, contemporary copy of an important collection of Descartes' works. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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MALEBRANCHE, Nicholas. Entretiens sur la Metaphysique & sur la Religion (Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion).
Rotterdam: Reinier Leers, 1688. FIRST EDITION TP + [i]-[iv] = Table des Entretienes + 1-604, 12 mo. Copelston claims that this book best "summarizes the author's system" (vol 4, p. 189) while the Encylopedia of Philosophy notes that this volume and his Méditations (1683) "is the best introduction to his philosophy". This particular book, it also notes, earned him the title of "the French Plato" (EP, Vol. 5, p. 140). Contemporary full-calf binding. Spine with five raised bands with gilt decorations and lettering. TP with some inter-line contemporary ink notations - some of which someone has tried to erase and, in doing so, has worn through the paper in a couple fo spot. There is also a small ink seal to the TP. Despite these problems with the title page, this is really a very nice copy. PHOTOS AVAILBLE UPON REQUEST.
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MALEBRANCHE, Nicholas. Entretien d'un Philosophe Chrétien et d'un Philosophe Chinois Sur l'Existence & la Nature de Dieu. (Dialogues on the Christian Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy Regarding the Existence and the Nature of God).
Paris: Chez Michel David, 1708. FIRST EDITION 2 blank leaves + TP + [1]-73 + [75]-[76] = Privilege du Roy + 2 blank leaves, 12 mo. Malebranche on the Existence and Nature of God - In [this work] he treats of matters connected with the existence and nature of God (Copelston, Vol. 4, p. 189). Contemporary full-calf binding. Spine with five raised bands with gilt decorations and lettering on a red field. Front joint cracked but firm. Lovely marbled end papers. A nice copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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[SHAFTESBURY] COOPER, Anthony Ashley, (3rd Earl of Shafte... Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times.
[no place]: [no publisher], 1711. FIRST EDITION In Three Volumes: Volume 1: TP + half title + [i]-iv + half title + 3-364; Volume 2: TP + half title + 5-443; Volume 3: TP + half title + 1-391 + [393]-[472] = Index, Octavo. The book is a collection of pieces written between 1699 and 1713. Volume One comprises: "A Letter Concerning Enthusiasm" (1708), the important "Sensus Communis (Common Sense), an Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humor" (1709) and "Soliloquy, or, Advise to an Author" (1710). Volume Two contains two essays: a revised version of "An Inquiry Concerning Virue, or Merit" (originally published in 1699) and "The Moralists, a Philosophical Rhapsody" (1709). Volume Three contains "Miscellanous Reflections on the preceding Treatises, and other Critical Subjects" (1711) along with the later-issued "A Notion of the Historical Draught of Tabulature of the Judgment of Hercules" (1713). NOTE that the title page to Volume Three does not list the "Judgement of Hercules", it has been handwritten there in contemporary ink. Also, the end of the "Micellaneous Reflections" essay - on page 334 of Volume Three - has the printed notation at the bottom of the page: "The End of the Third Volume." The "Judgement of Hercules" - which continues the pagination from the "Miscellaneous Reflections" - ends on page 391 where, it too, says "The End of the Third Volume." "The author who exercised the most influence on the earlier philosophic schools of Scotland was not Locke, but Lord Shaftesbury, the grandson of the Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury, who had been the friend of Locke… Francis Hutcheson did little more than expound [Shaftesbury's] views, with less versatility, but in a more equable, thorough, and systematic manner…. Reid and Beattie got their favorite phrase, "common sense,'" I have no doubt, directly or indirectly from the treatise so entitled in the 'Characteristics'." " (McCosh, The Scottish Philosophy, pp. 29 & 35) Anthony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, was born at Exeter House in London on 26 February 1671. He died in Naples on 15 February 1713. His father, the second earl, appears to have been weak both in mind and body, and young Anthony was placed in the formal guardianship of his grandfather, the (in)famous first Earl of Shaftesbury, at the age of three. Superintendence of his education was handed over to no less a personage than John Locke, with whom Shaftesbury seems to have had an ambivalent relationship. While honouring him as his 'friend and foster-father', Shaftesbury came not only to reject, but even to detest, much of Locke's philosophy. Shaftesbury was one of the most important philosophers of his day, and exerted an enormous influence throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on British and European discussions of morality, aesthetics and religion. Shaftesbury's popularity in the eighteenth century was great; Characteristicks ran through eleven editions by 1790. His views had considerable influence on the rise of deism, on late eighteenth-century German romantic aesthetic thought, and on British moral philosophy. It is customary to view Shaftesbury as the source or founder of the moral sense or sentimentalist school of ethics, whose foremost members were Hutcheson and Hume. It is true that they took much from him, but in the great eighteenth-century debate as to whether morality is founded on reason or on sentiment, Shaftesbury should, perhaps, be counted on the rationalist side. His stress on the affections, and his talk of a reflective 'moral sense' which has an immediate liking for some of our affections and a disliking for others, certainly makes him sound like a sentimentalist. Unlike Hume, however, Shaftesbury does not think of reason as independent of feeling or desire. On the contrary, as rational creatures we necessarily love harmony, beauty and virtue, because they are rationally structured. Shaftesbury, in common with the rationalists, believes that there are eternal moral truths which exist independently of us and which are revealed to us by the use of our reason. As a good Platonist, however, he thinks that reason cannot know the good without loving it. Bound in contemporary sprinkled calf and neatly rebacked. The boards have been worn on the corners and lightly chipped on some edges. The spines have lettering pieces on red fields and the number of each volume in gilt in its own compartment. Some light foxing to early and late leaves but, overall, a lovely set of a rare and important collection. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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HERDER, Johann Gottlieb. Gott. Einige Gespræche, (God. Some Conversations).
Gotha: Karl Wilhelm Ettinger, 1787. FIRST EDITION TP + [III]-VIII + [1]-252, small Octavo. "In opposition to the emphatic dualism, which Kant affirms between the empirical material and the a priori form of thought, Herder puts forward the profounder idea of an essential unity and a gradual development in nature and mind. His cosmical philosophy culminates in a poetic Spinozism, filled with the idea of the personality of the divine spirit and of immortality (conceived as a metempsychosis - a form of Spinozism, therefore, similar to that exemplified in those works of Spinoza's which preceded the Ethics [although this form, historically, was unknown in Herder's time], and less removed from the doctrine of Bruno). This philosophy he developed connectedely in the work entitled "God, Dialogues Concerning Spinoza's System (1787)." Ueberweg II, p. 201 (giving the correct date for the first edition but using the expanded title that only appeared in the second edition of 1800.) Contemporary rubbed paste boards. Paper label to spine with contemporary brown ink lettering. Some browning and foxing but, overall, a lovely copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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GOBINEAU, Joseph-Arthur, Comte de. Essai sur L'Inélgalité des Races Humaines (Essays on the Inequality of the Human Races).
Paris : Librairede Firmin Didot Freres, 1853-1855. FIRST EDITION Volume 1: 1 blank leaf + half-title + TP + [I]-XI + [1]-492 + [493]-[494] = Errata + 1 blank leaf; Volume 2: 1 blank leaf + half-title + TP + [1]-512 + [513]-[514] = Errata + 1 blank leaf; Volume 3: 1 blank leaf + half-title + TP + [1]-423 + [424] = Contents + 1 blank leaf; Volume 4: 1 blank leaf + half-title + TP + [1]-359 + [360] = Contents + 1 blank leaf, Octavo. "The French Diplomatist and man of letters, Gobineau has, through the 'Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races'-his one excursion into the realms of anthropology and sociology-exerted an influence upon European thought and action which is quite disproportionate to its scholarly insignificance and inconsequential argumentation. The men of the Action Française, Lenin, Mussolini, and Hitler were, at one remove, the disciples and propagandists of Gobineau's most outrageous ideas. Gobineau's racial theories were based on a complete misunderstanding of the positivism of Comte and the researches of Prichard into the physiological differences of the various human races. Fortified by the innate arrogance of a scion of an ancien régime family, and by his observations as an envoy in the Near and Middle East, he championed the theory, since entirely disproved, that 'race' is a permanent and immutable phenomenon, and he proclaimed the unchallengeable superiority of the white race over all others. Within the white race, Gobineau assigned the supreme position to the 'nordic'-or as he fatuously called them 'aryan'-peoples who, thanks to their praiseworthy qualities of hardiness and lust for power, are predestined to rule the rest of mankind. This farrago of biological nonsense, wishful romanticism and imperialistic dreams was lapped up eagerly by the French and German intellectuals. The German enthusiasm for Gobineau-the German translation of the Essai went through several editions-is the less comprehensible in that Gobineau thought very poorly of the 'German race', which he considered a mixture of Celts and Slavs with hardly any pure 'nordic' blood. But there was enough substance in Gobineau's book to provide nourishment for the growth of the pan-germanism and national self-adulation, and seemingly to justify anti-semitic and anti-slav excesses. Hence derived the 'superman' and the glorious 'blond beast' of Nietzsche and the germanomania and anti-semitism of Wagner, which reached their nadir in Die Grundlagen des 19. Jahrhunderts (1899) by Wagner's English-born son-in-law, Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He in turn inspired Alfred Rosenberg's Mythos des 20. Jahrhunderts (1930) from which Hitler and his henchmen imbibed the 'scientific' arguments of their racialist programme" Printing and the Mind of Man 335 Gobineau's famous and notorious essays on the inequality of the races. These volumes were complimented by Nietzsche, beloved by Wagner and the ostensible foundation for the ultimate infamy of the Nazis. Certainly, PMM describes Gobineau and his theories in the most unflattering terms (see above) but the Encyclopedia of Philosophy takes a much less critical and hysterical view focusing on what Gobineau was actually saying rather than the ways in which he was misunderstood. Whatever his arguments (or their merit) these four volumes have been hugely influential on the 19th and 20th centuries with a long genealogy of admirers. Contemporary half-leather with lovely marbled boards. Each spine is ribbed with gilt lettering for the title in one field (on red) and for the volume number in another field (on black). Each volume has been expertly repaired on the top and bottom of the spine. Joints reinforced with thin leather seam on the outside and Japanese paper on the inside. Each volume and some of the initial half-titles have at least one very light, blue stamp on them ("Set d'Economie Social / Secretariat General / 54. Rue de Seine") measuring 3/4" x 2": Volume 1: two on TP; Volume 2: one on HT, one on TP; Volume 3: one on HT, one on TP; Volume 4: two on TP. Excepting only the stamps, these are absolutely lovely, contemporary copies of this work. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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BOLZANO, Bernard. Erbauungsreden für Akademiker. (Educational Lectures for University Graduates).
Prag: Caspar Widtmann, 1813. FIRST EDITION TP + Dedication page + [V]-XX = Vorrede + [XXI]-XXII] = Inhalt + [1]-354, Octavo. This is Bolzano's first book, published while he was still teaching at the University of Prague. He had been appointed to the chair of religion in 1805 shortly before he received his doctorate and was ordained a priest. The chair he occupied was one established by Emperor Francis of Austria in universities and higher schools throughout the Empire in 1804. The Emperor created these position in order to teach people to become "good Christians and responsible citizens" and to counteract the ideas then emanating from the French Revolution. For the next 14 years, Bolzano taught at the university, lecturing mainly on ethics, social questions and the links between mathematics and philosophy. He was very popular with both the student body, who appreciated his straightforward expression of his beliefs, and his fellow professors, who recognized his intelligence. In 1818, he became Dean of the philosophy department. However, in 1819, after several investigations, Bolzano was deprived of his position and forbidden to lecture and to publish because of his outspoken beliefs. The views put forth in this book, along with his paper and letters, formed the basis for that verdict. (Later this ban was relaxed to allow the publication of works that were without religious or political content.) The ban allowed Bolzano the opportunity to devote his time to the study of mathematics and logic which led to his revolutionary thoughts on both of those topics. In his own time, Bolzano's work was largely unrecognized and it wasn't until the early 20th Century that Husserl became his champion and brought his revolutionary work to real prominence. Contemporary blue & black marbled pasteboard binding with gilt & brown label on spine and a 1" square piece of white paper with the number 123 written on it. Slight wear to spine edges. Internally, the text is very lightly browned on all pages. Overall, a very lovely copy of a rare book. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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LOCKE, John. Essai philosophique concernant l'entendement humain, ou l'on montre quelle est l'etendue de nos connoissances certaines, et la manière dont nous y parvenons (A Philosophical Essay on Human Understanding or how one shows the extent of our understanding and the ways in which we that reach that point).
Amsterdam: Chez Henri Schelte, 1700. FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH 1 blank leaf + leaf with portrait of Locke on verso + TP + [i]-[iv] = Dedication + [v]-[xii] = Avertissement du Traducteur + [xiii] = Monsieur Locke au Libraire + [xiv]-[xxvi] = Preface de L'Auteur + [xxvii]-[liv] = Table des Matiéres (Contents) + 1-936 + [937]-[957] = Table des Principales Matieres + [958] = Privilegie + 1 blank leaf, Quarto. Yolton 91. First edition in French of John Locke¹s Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (first published in English in 1690). As noted on the title page, this edition has been "Traduit de l¹Anglois de Mr. Locke, par Pierre Coste, sur la quatriéme edition, revûë, corrigée, & augmentée par l¹auteur" (Translated from the English of Mr. Locke by Pierre Coste from the fourth edtion, revued, corrected and added to by the author.) NOTE: The fourth edition (of 1700) was not yet published when this French edition appeared. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Locke by "P. a Gunst" after J. Greenhill. Woodcut printer¹s device on TP. Decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials. Because French rather than English was the universal langauge, Locke's continental readers were dependent initially upon reviews in French-language journals - Basnage de Beauval's Histoire des ouvrages des savans, Bernard's Nouvelles de la république des lettres, and (most especially) Le Clerc's Bibliothèque universelle and its successors. Interested parties such as Limborch and Leibniz did not really come to grips with the Essay until it had been translated into French. This was accomplished in 1700 by Pierre Coste. Coste, like Le Clerc, was a French Protestant refugee in Holland. In 1695, he translated Locke's Some thoughts concerning education into French and sent the author a copy. Locke was pleased, and Le Clerc encouraged the young man to begin translating the Essay. In 1697, Coste was invited to Locke's retreat at Oates, as tutor to the Masham children and as Locke's assistant. The translation was completed under Locke's supervision and was published in June 1700, prefaced by Locke's recommendation. Coste remained at Oates until Locke's death in 1704. Thereafter, in the midst of a busy literary career, he continued his work on the Essay, bringing out a revised edition in 1729. (9½" x 7¼") In this copy, the frontispiece has been bound after p. [iv] rather than opposite the title page. Beautifully bound in eighteenth-century calf. The spine is decoratively tooled in gilt compartments with red morocco gilt lettering label. The board corners of the book are just a bit worn. Both front and back boards each with a single unobtrusive gouge. Wear to joints at head and toe of spine. Spine headcap chipped (1½" wide and up to ½" deep). Some foxing and occasional browning with a few small marks on title page. Aside from a bit of splitting to the joints and the rather minor chip to the top of the spine facing, this an excellent copy of this scarce edition. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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BONNET, Charles. Essai Analytique sur les Faculte's de L'ame (Analytical Essay on the Faculties of the Soul).
Coenhague: Freres Cl. & Ant. Philibert, 1760. FIRST EDITION TP + 3 leaves = 5 pp. = Dedication + [I]-XXXII + [1]-552 + [553] = Errata, Quarto. Bonnet was a Swiss naturalist and philosopher born into a French family that had been driven to Geneva by the religious persecutions of the 16th century. His failing eyesight (reputedly caused by too much time spent looking into microscopes) drew him from natural history into philosophy. In this work and in Essai de psychologie - which preceded it in 1754 - Bonnet "followed Condillac by using the device of the imaginary statue to illustrate the genetic method of explaining the development of the personality. The personality arises from memory, which grows out of sensations. Especially concerned with the body-mind relation, Bonnet accepted David Hartley's theory of association of ideas. He defined freedom as the power of the soul to follow necessary motives; but in granting man a substantial mind, he denied mechanical determinism. He held that the relation between mind and body indicates that the mind must operate in a physical organism, but survives it - an idea that was to be developed [later] in his cosmic speculations." (EP, vol.1, p. 345) Contemporary half-calf binding with mottled brown boards. Five raised bands on the spine, richly decorated with gilt floral motifs. Tan spine label lettered in gilt. Very minor chipping to the head of spine. Small area of worming to center gutter area, not affecting text, extending from the front fly leaf to p. XV. - at which point it disappears. Some browning to text but overall a lovely, firm and tight copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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HELVÉTIUS, Claude-Adrien. De l'esprit (On the Mind).
Paris: Durand, 1758. FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE 1 blank leaf + half-title + TP + i-xxii + [1]-643 + [644] = Approbation and Privilege du Roi, Quarto [bound with] Gazette Deleyde (22 Aout 1758); [1]-8, small Quarto [bound with] Lettre au Reverend Pere ***; 1-7, Octavo. (Smith "B" Tirage [1964], E.1B [2001]), First Editions of the other two pieces. DETAILED BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST (this book has a very complicated printing history!) The two pieces inserted at the end of this copy are (a) a contempory account reporting on the revocation of the original privledge which had been obtained on August 10, 1758 and (b) a copy of Helvètius's first (of two) retractions of statements made in his own work. Both retractions were in the form of a letter addressed to Helvètius's` friend, the Jesuit Père Plesse. "The publication in 1758 of his principal work, De l'esprit was noisily condemned by the authorities, both ecclesiastical and ministerial, for its dangerously heretical and subversive opinions. Suppression of the book signaled a grave - but fortunately temporary - setback for the party of philosophes and Encyclopedists. Despite the recantations that Helvétius was forced to make regarding De l'esprit, he reaffirmed his ideas even more strongly in De L'Homme, de ses facultes intellectuelles, et se son education, published posthumously in 1772." (EP, Vol. 3, p. 472) Helvétius continued the work of Condillac by reducing all human understanding to sensation or sense-perception. He then took this reductionist psychology and erected a utilitarian theory of morality based upon it - making him "one of the chief pioneers and promoters of utilitarian moral theory" (Copelston, VI, 1, p. 51). Helvétius was a strong defender of the benefits of education and also extremely political - attacking all forms of despotism and, in particular, French despotism. Bound in a lovely and well-preserved contemporary full leather binding with boards that are marked in an even pattern. Spine with five raised bands and gilt lettering and devices. The small armorial plate of M. Ducas on the inside front cover and three lines of small, neat script on the verso of the half-title. Overall, a very beautiful book. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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HELVÉTIUS, Claude-Adrien. De l'esprit (On the Mind).
Paris: Durand, 1758. SECOND EDITION Half title + TP + i-xxii + [1]-643 + [644] = Approbation and Privilege du Roi, Quarto. (Smith "C" Tirage [1964], E.2 [2001]). DETAILED BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST (this book has a very complicated printing history!) "The publication in 1758 of his principal work, De l'esprit was noisily condemned by the authorities, both ecclesiastical and ministerial, for its dangerously heretical and subversive opinions. Suppression of the book signaled a grave - but fortunately temporary - setback for the party of philosophes and Encyclopedists. Despite the recantations that Helvétius was forced to make regarding De l'esprit, he reaffirmed his ideas even more strongly in