Thought and Action
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Stuart Hampshire |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Action theory |
| Publisher | Chatto and Windus |
Publication date | 1959 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 276 |
| ISBN | 978-0268018474 |
Thought and Action is a 1959 book by the philosopher Stuart Hampshire.[1] The book has received praise from commentators, and is considered Hampshire's major work.[1]
Summary
Hampshire develops in greater detail ideas about freedom and the philosophy of mind that he had already explored in his Spinoza (1951). He examines a set of contrasts between that which is unavoidable in human thought and that which is contingent, between knowledge and decision, criticism and practice, philosophy and experience.[1] He argues that empiricist theories of perception descending from George Berkeley and David Hume mistakenly represent people as passive observers receiving impressions from "outside" of the mind, where the "outside" includes their own bodies.[2]
Reception
The historian Peter Gay wrote that Thought and Action is a "brilliant" and "lucid" contribution to the philosophy of action, and a subtle vindication of free will.[3] The philosopher Roger Scruton, writing in Sexual Desire (1986), credited Hampshire with providing a seminal discussion of two contrasting outlooks on the future that can be called "predicting and deciding."[4] The philosopher Anthony Quinton wrote that Hampshire's "systematic aim and fine mandarin prose were both unusual for an Oxford philosopher of the time."[5]
References
Footnotes
- 1 2 3 Downie 2005. p. 358.
- ↑ Hampshire 1959. p. 47.
- ↑ Gay 1976. p. 237.
- ↑ Scruton 1994. p. 333.
- ↑ Quinton 2005. p. 546.
Bibliography
- Downie, R. S. (2005). Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926479-1.
- Gay, Peter (1976). Art and Act: On Causes in History – Manet, Gropius, Mondrian. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-430061-7.
- Hampshire, Stuart (1959). Thought and Action. London: Chatto and Windus.
- Quinton, Anthony (2005). Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926479-1.
- Scruton, Roger (1994). Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation. London: Phoenix. ISBN 1-85799-100-1.