Irish Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century - Epistemology and Metaphysics (Hardcover, Facsimile edition)

Irish philosophy is the subject of increasing attention by scholars and students, and Thomas Duddy - author of "A History of Irish Thought" (2002) - has collaborated with Thoemmes Press to produce a collection of important Irish texts in epistemology and metaphysics from the 19th century. (Further sets, on Irish philosophical responses to Darwin and on Irish moral and political philosophy, are in preparation). In this first collection, seven writers address such perennial philosophical issues as the problem of perception and the question of what, if anything, exists beyond the perceived world. The group of writers featured in the set includes Thomas Kingsmill Abbott and W.H.S. Monck, both of whom responded critically to Berkeley's theory of vision. It also includes Thomas Maguire, an idealist in the Platonic tradition, Henry MacCormac who applied empiricist principles to social and political problems, William Graham who attempted a metaphysical critique of science and also argued for pantheism, and George Gabriel Stokes who explored the borderland between science and theology while at the same time attempting to reconcile the religious and scientific world-pictures. These books are extremely uncommon in libraries and virtually unobtainable in the antiquarian book market. They are presented here in their earliest editions, with Thomas Duddy's introduction.