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LIST 217 - PHILOSOPHY.
61 REINHOLD, Karl Leonhard. VERSUCH EINER NEUEN THEORIE des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermögens. Prag und Jena, bey C. Widtmann und L.M. Mauke, 1789.£ 650
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [iv], 579, [1] errata; some very light foxing and spotting in places, but still generally clean throughout; in contemporary sheep, spine ruled in gilt with morocco label lettered in gilt; with some contemporary annotations on verso of front free endpaper.
First edition of the most important work by the post-Kantian philosopher Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1758- 1823).
After his Briefe über die Kantische Philosophie of 1786-7, which did much to popularise Kant’s critical philosophy and led to Reinhold’s being granted a chair at Jena, Reinhold began to identify what he saw as the inadequacies in Kant’s system, in particular argues that any theory of knowledge presupposed a theory of representation, which Kant had failed to supply. In the present work, he articulates what such a theory could be, dividing his work into three parts dealing with the possibility of a theory of representation, the theory in general, and a more general epistemology.
On truth criteria
62ROCCHI, Antonio. DEL MODO DI GIUDICAR RETTAMENTE DEL VERO: ossia dei fondamenti della scienza ... In Padova, nella Stamperia Conzatti. 1767.£ 400
FIRST EDITION. 4to, pp. 125, [3]; a clean fresh copy throughout; uncut and largely unopened in contemporary stiff wrappers, lightly dust-soiled and marked, some ties broken but binding holding firm; a very good copy.
First edition of this rare essay on epistemology, scepticism, and truth criteria, by the Padua priest, mathematician, and philosopher Antonio Rocchi (1724-1780).
The essay is printed in parallel Latin and Italian, and is arranged in the late scholastic form of definitions, scholia, and corollaries (although these are not reflected in the Italian text), and discusses the possibility and utility of a single universal truth criterion, through an examination of the natures of various types of knowledge, from scientia to conscientia, a psychological investigation of the notion of certitude, and further questions about the absolute Good.
Rocchi wrote a number of works on mathematical and other subjects, including works on conic sections, astronomy, cubic equations, and a dissertation on music.
Vedova, Biografia degli scrittori padovani, p. 165; OCLC records just one copy, at Göttingen.
63 ROSMINI-SERBATI, Antonio. IL RINNOVAMENTO DELLA FILOSOFIA IN ITALIA Proposto dal C.T. Mamiani della Rovere. Ed Esaminato da Antonio Rosmini-Serbati. Milano, Dalla Tipografia Pogliani, Contrada di sant’ Alessandro. 1836.£ 285
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [iv], 712; with one large folding table; some foxing in places due to paper stock, but generally clean and crisp; in contemporary calf backed marbled boards, with contrasting orange and green morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, library label at foot of spine, some unobtrusive worm holes on spine and slight chip at head, foot of upper joint cracked (but holding firm), some surface light wear; with library stamp of the ‘Biblioteca Frati Minori di S. Croce’ on title and front paste-down; a very good copy.
First edition of this response by Antonio Rosmini-Serbati to Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere’s Del rinnovamento della filosofia antica italiana, which first appeared in 1834.
Mamiani, who “began as an empiricist critic of Rosmini and ended as a Platonist admirer without contributing anything valuable in either role” (Encyclopedia of Philosophy), had sought in his survey of Italian philosophy to reconcile the revealed truths of Christianity with the demands of reason, with mixed results. Rosmini divides his response into three books. The first discusses the connection between the question of the origin of ideas and that of the certainty of human cognition. The second book examines the roots of human knowledge, responding in detail to Mamiani’s arguments and perceived errors. In the third book, Rosmini turns to the certainty of human cognition, discussing truth criteria and attacking those proposed by Mamiani, before comparing Mamiani with Descartes. Throughout the work, Rosmini cites liberally from a wide variety of philosophers, from antiquity to the nineteenth century, especially including Vico, Condillac, Hegel, Kant, Reid, and Schelling. However, Rosmini’s main influences, besides Kant, were derived from Italian Platonism, and it is this school that most informs the present work.
From his Platonist principles, “Rosmini managed to derive a whole system of social regulation; and upon it he based the organization of the Catholic Order of the Fathers of Charity, which he founded in 1828. He was an active leader of the more liberal Catholics in the revolutions of 1848, and despite the official condemnation of 40 propositions from his works he has always remained influential in Catholic philosophical circles. He also influenced leaders of thought who were not professional philosophers, notably the novelists Alessandro Manzoni (a grandson of Beccaria) and Antonio Forazzao” (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
Not in OCLC, which records just two copies of the work to which this was a reply (see above), at Harvard and Duke only.
64ROSMINI-SERBATI, Antonio. FILOSOFIA DELLA MORALE. [in]: Opere Edite e Inedite dell’ Abate Antonio Rosmini-Serbati. Roveretano. Volume XII. Milano, Tipografia e Libreria Pogliani ... 1837.£ 225
8vo, pp. xxviii, 127, [1] blank, [4] index; 352, [5] indexes, [1] errata, [1], [1] blank; with one large folding table; some minor foxing in places, and stamp on title page and on front pastedown; in contemporary red morocco over marbled boards, vellum corners, spine attractively tooled and lettered in gilt, with library label at foot, small crack to foot of upper joint, otherwise apart from light surface wear a very good copy.
The first collected edition of Rosmini-Serbati’s main works on moral philosophy, published as volume twelve of his Opere edite e inedite. The volume comprises his Principi della scienza morale (first published in 1830-1) and his Storia comparativa e critica de’ sistemi intorno al principio della morale, of which this seems to be the first appearance.
From his Platonist principles, “Rosmini managed to derive a whole system of social regulation; and upon it he based the organization of the Catholic Order of the Fathers of Charity, which he founded in 1828. He was an active leader of the more liberal Catholics in the revolutions of 1848, and despite the official condemnation of 40 propositions from his works he has always remained influential in Catholic philosophical circles. He also influenced leaders of thought who were not professional philosophers, notably the novelists Alessandro Manzoni (a grandson of Beccaria) and Antonio Forazzao” (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
OCLC: 26740730 records just four copies of this volume in the US, at the Catholic University, Columbia, New York and Trinity University (Coates Library).
Education for a Constitutional Monarch
65[ROUSSEAU]. J. J. ROUSSEAU AUX MINISTRES D’ÉTAT. Amsterdam, chez M.M. Rey; Turin, chez les freres Reycends & Gibert, 1764.£ 2,250
FIRST EDITION. 12mo, pp. 60; lightly browned in places only; entirely uncut in contemporary patterned wrappers printed in turquoise, yellow and black.
First edition of this rare and radical pseudo-Rousseauean treatise on good government, a distillate and digest of Rousseauean political thought. The short preface tells us that the author had been pestered for one year by a friend to publish this work, and that he yields to this demand; however, he thinks that this publication will be the last he will give to the public. This cryptic preface sets the tone for the intricacies of the entire work, which is most likely not written by Rousseau, despite Rey in Amsterdam being the publisher of several of his books.
Discussing the relation between a sovereign, his subjects and the mechanics of government, the author expresses a clear view on how a state should be organized: ‘A parliament is the best means by which a prince can recognize the love of his people and their well-being’ (p. 11). On religion the author opines that too much rigidity does not make bad Christians better but rather turns them into secretive and cunning hippocrites. This book is basically a courtesy book, an educational book for a young prince, however written from an enlightened and anti-absolutist point of view, 15 years before the short-lived constitutional monarchy in France.
Not in Dufour; Conlon 287; OCLC records just one copy in North America, at Indiana, with one further copy in the UK, at Cambridge; KVK locates one copy in Geneva.
Anti-Social Contract
66[ROUSSEAU]. BEAUCLAIR, Paul Louis de. ANTI-CONTRACT SOCIAL, dans le quel on réfute, d’une manière claire, utile & agréable, les principes posés dans le contract-social de J.J. Rousseau ... A La Haye, Chez Frederic Staatman, Libraire sur le Kalvermarkt, vis-à-vis le Marechal de Turenne. 1764.£ 450
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [iv], xii, iv, 5-271, [1] blank; clean and crisp throughout; in contemporary calf, spine gilt with morocco label lettered in gilt; a very good copy.
First edition of one of the earliest and most perceptive responses to Rousseau’s Social Contract, by P.L. de Beauclair (1735-1804), which appeared two years after the publication of Rousseau’s work.
Beauclair follows the structure of Rousseau’s work chapter by chapter, in each case responding in depth to Rousseau’s arguments with counterarguments almost entirely based on Lockeian orthodoxy, albeit with a nod to Voltaire in the final chapter (on civil religion). In common with many of his contemporaries, Beauclair saw the Social Contract as espousing an unfettered individualism, and the bulk of his response is concerned with a defence of the rights and duties of Government (in particular, monarchical government) over those of the individual. However, “when he comes to the crucial chapters—those on the Contract and the Civil State—he displays an unwonted flash of insight. He realises that he is face to face with an extreme form of collectivism. He fastens, with holy horror, upon Rousseau’s contention that man’s moral life is the creation of the civil state, and complains that this is to reduce justice and all the other virtues to matters of mere ‘convention and caprice’. Considering how blind successive generations of readers have been to the bearing of these chapters, it is a sign of grace that Beauclair should have recognised their importance; that his criticism, however blundering, should at least have been aimed at what, in the speculative sense, is the corner-stone of the whole argument... It is a depressing tribute to the dulness of Rousseau’s critics that, in virtue of a single flash, Beauclair must be reckoned one-eyed among the blind” (C.E. Vaughan, “Introduction” to The Political Writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, CUP, 1915).
The present copy is bound together with a copy of Rousseau’s Du Contract Social (1762), evidently published as part of the Oeuvres Diverses de J.J. Rousseau, ‘Tome Troisieme’, as stated on the half-title.
OCLC: 6311311.
67ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. J.J. ROUSSEAUS BEKJENDELSER eller hans Levnet, skrevet af man selv paa Fransk. Første [-Fierde] Deel. Kjøbenhavn, Trykt paa J. M. Stadthagens Forlag, hos Zach. Breum. 1798.£ 750
FIRST DANISH TRANSLATION. Four volumes in two, 8vo, pp. [iv], 409, [1] blank; [ii], 396, [2] advertisements; 454, [2] advertisements; 238; aside from some light foxing and spotting in places, clean and crisp throughout; attractively and unusually bound in contemporary danish half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt with raised diamond- shaped labels; some wear to boards, joints and extremities, but still a good copy.
First Danish translation of Rousseau’s Confessions, one of the key autobiographical works of the romantic period, and arguably the first modern autobiography.
Whilst the first part of the Confessions deals with Rousseau’s childhood and early youth, it is the second part which deals with the most significant period of his life, from his arrival in Paris in 1742, through the most turbulent and productive years, to his departure for Switzerland in 1766 and his subsequent departure for England.
The Confessions, although mostly written for his own pleasure and self-awareness, were also part of a public vindication. ‘I should willingly consent to not existing at all in the memory of men, but I cannot consent to remain there forever dishonoured by calumny’ (Oeuvres Completes, Gallimard edn, I, 953).
We have been unable to identify the translator.
OCLC records copies at Harvard, Illinois, St Olaf College, and McGill.
68[ROUSSEAU]. TARDIANI, Scipione. ESAME ANALITICO DEL CONTRATTO SOCIALE di G.G. Rousseau. Primo [-Secondo]. Lucca, dalla Tipografia Benedini e Rocchi, 1819.£ 550
FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo, pp. xxxii, 256; 413, [1] blank; apart from some minor light browning in places, a clean copy throughout; bound in contemporary half vellum over marbled boards, spine tooled in gilt with contrasting brown and green morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, light rubbing to extremities, but not detracting from this being a handsome and appealing copy.
First and only edition of this detailed and systematic critique of Rousseau’s Social Contract, by Scipione T ardiani.
In common with many works on the Social Contract, Tardiani follows the structure of Rousseau’s work chapter by chapter, while making note of the fact that readers of the work had tended not to question the assumptions made by Rousseau, on which many of his conclusions were based, but rather just accept his assertions at face value; this failing, Tardiani feels, is shared both by politicians and other philosophers. He attempts, then, to analyse not only Rousseau’s conclusions but also his premises, dismantling Rousseau’s arguments line by line. He concludes his preface by advising the reader: “la verità e il disinganno devono formare il solo, e tutto il diletto di un saggio lettore. Io non gli dimando che due cose: sofferenza, ed indifferenza. Sofferenza riguardo a me; infidderenza per giudicare senza passione tra l’opera di Rousseau, e l’esame, che gli presento, in rapporto alla verità. Dopo che avrà letto, e bilanciato, giudichi fra di noi” (p. xxxii).
OCLC records three copies, at Harvard and McGill in North America, and Cambridge in the UK.
69SALAT, Jakob. GRUNDZÜGE DER ALLGEMEINEN PHILOSOPHIE. Aus dem Standpunkte
der höheren Bildung der Menschheit. München, bey Karl Thienemann. 1820.£ 450
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. xvi, 302, [2] errata and colophon; some light foxing in places, but generally clean and
fresh throughout; in contemporary half calf, spine tolled in gilt with green skiver label lettered in gilt; a good copy.
First edition of this comprehensive survey of the foundations, terminology, and history of philosophy by the German Catholic philosopher Jakob Salat (1766-1851).
Dismissed by Hegel as no more than a moralist, Salat was a noted opponent of Schelling, and sought to integrate the disciplines of psychology and anthropology into his philosophical thinking. In the present work he seeks to describe the ways in which philosophy as a discipline was different from the sciences of logic and mathematics, and explain its relationship with other activities, including pedagogy, before discussing the terminology and scope of philosophy in Kantian terms. He goes on to examine the objects of philosophy, its foundations, and its divisions into theoretical and practical.
In addition to the present work, Salat also published studies of Schelling and Hegel, an account of the Bavarian enlightenment, and, the year before his death, his memoirs. He was much influenced by Jacobi.
Not in OCLC.
The Nature of Philosophy
70SCHENBERG,Samuel. DISSERTATIO PHILOSOPHICA DE CRITERIS VERAE PHILOSOPHIAE cujus partem priorem Consensu Ampliss. Senatus Philosophici in Illustri Academia Upsaliensi Praeside, Dn. Samuele Klingenstierna ... ad publicum bonorum examen modeste defert, Samuel Schenbergh ... In Audit. Gustav. Majori ad diem 14 Octobr. Anni MDCCXXXII. Upsaliae, Literis Wernerianis [1732].£ 185
DISSERTATION. 4to, pp. [vi], 26; clean and fresh throughout, with contemporary ownership signature on title; in modern marbled wrappers.
A good copy of this rare dissertation on the nature of philosophy, presented to the University of Uppsala.
The author, Samuel Schenberg, defines philosophy as “Scientia theoretico-practica; ab experientia, opera et ductu rectae rationis, desumta, informans intellectum de veritate et bonitate rerum, ut ... felicitas hominum ... procuretur” (p. 3). He goes on to explain and elaborate this definition, distinguishing between theoretical and practical philosophy, and discussing the rôle of experience in philosophical speculation. Schenberg concludes by explaining the form (in the scholastic sense) of philosophy, and its relationship to metaphysics and the pratical arts such as medicine, finally arguing that the end of philosophy is “gloria Dei, et felicitas hominum”.
Not in OCLC.
A Critical Account of Monadology
71[SIGORGNE,Pierre].INSTITUTIONS LÉIBNITIENNES, ou Précis de la Monadologie.A Lyon, Chez les Frères Perisse, Libraires rue Merciere. MDCCLXVIII [ 1768].£ 750
SECOND EDITION. 8vo, pp. xii, 231, [1] errata; aside from very occasional light spotting, very clean and crisp throughout; in contemporary mottled calf, spine in compartments decorated in gilt, with morocco label lettered in gilt; spine and corners rubbed, but an attractive copy.
Second edition (first 1767) of this critical account of Leibniz’ Monadology, which “contributed to the more informed discussion of German philosophy in France” (DSB).
Sigorgne’s work constitutes an introduction to Leibniz’ cosmological series, in advance of the appearance of a complete edition of the German’s philosophical works. He observes that Leibniz seldom seemed more than half-explained, and had little interest in speaking to anyone but savants, and the present book is designed to enable the public to understand better and profit more from the complete edition which was to appear. The work is divided into four letters, dealing in detail with monads, the nature of extension and matter and the spiritual (as distinct from physical) nature of the soul, the nature of bodies, space, place and movement, and the activity of substances.
Pierre Sigorgne (1719-1809) did much to introduce Newton’s thought into French intellectual circles, and into the curriculum of the University of Paris. The present work is based on the model of his best known work, the Institutions Newtoniennes of 1747, a Latin version of which was “rapidly recognized as the standard Newtonian textbook in Western Europe” (DSB).
Wallis, 150; OCLC: 8686520 records copies at Berkeley, Southern Illinois, Harvard, and the Musée Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle.
First Blavet Translation
72SMITH, Adam. THEORIE DES SENTIMENS MORAUX, Traduction Nouvelleite de l’Anglois de M. Smith, ancien Professeur de Philosophie a Glasgow; Avec une Table raisonne des matieres contenues dans l’Ouvrage, par M. l’Abbe Blavet ... A Paris, chez Valade, Libraire, 1774 [-75]. £ 1,500
FIRST BLAVET TRANSLATION. Two volumes bound in one, 12mo, pp. lvi, 249, [1] blank, [1] advertisement, [1] blank; [iv], 329, [2] Approbation & Privilege, [1] blank, [4] advertisements, [1] errata, [1] blank; with the half- titles and attractive woodcut ornaments; minor mark just visible at foot in places, otherwise a clean fresh copy throughout; handsomely bound in contemporary French mottled calf, spine decoratively gilt with green, minor rubbing to extremities, but not detracting from this being a very desirable copy.
Rare first edition of Jean Louis Blavet’s important French translation of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith’s first book, the work which established his reputation as a philosopher not only in London but also on the Continent.
‘One of Adam Smith’s major claims to fame, in some ways his greatest, is his development of a unified concept of an economic system with mutually interdependent parts. His development of this came well before the Wealth of Nations: it is in the Theory of Moral Sentiments of 1759 and the Lectures of 1762-3’ (D.P. O’Brien The Classical Economists, 1975, p. 29).
The earlier translation (1764) of Marc-Antoine Eidous appears never to have been reprinted and did not gain the ‘success in Paris to match its reputation in Britain, but that this was due to the defects of the translation and was no argument against its merit’ (Glasgow edition). Blavet was later to make a successful translation of the Wealth of Nations (1779-80).
The present Blavet translation was taken from the third edition and reprinted in 1782, helping to establish Adam Smith’s reputation on the Continent.
Vanderblue p. 41; OCLC records copies at Kansas, National Library of Scotland, Cambridge, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and National Library of Sweden; not in Kress or Goldsmiths Libraries, Einaudi or Higgs.
Unrecorded Reform Catechism
73SOAVE, Francesco. CATECHISMO MAGGIORE ad uso delle Scuole di Francesco Soave. In Venezia, nella Stamperia di Giacomo Storti. MDCCXCIV [ 1794].£ 350
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 124; a clean and crisp copy, with only occasional minor foxing just visible; uncut and stitched as issued in contemporary wrappers, upper wrapper and spine titled in ink in a slightly later hand, head of spine chipped and covers lightly dust-soiled, but still a very good copy.
First edition of one of Francesco Soave’s text books for modern schools in Northern Italy. The catechism was published for the schools organized along his principles and appeared without approbation of the church authorities.
We could not establish whether it was ever in use; however, the rarity and the absence of a later reprint speaks for it not having found the approval of the church.
The Swiss-born Soave (1743-1806) was a member of the religious order Congregazione dei Padri Somaschi, dedicated to living with and educating the poor, and wrote a number of philosophical and educational works, including a study of Kant’s philosophy, one on logic as the sub-structure of language, a history of the Jewish people and translated works by Locke, Hugh Blair and others into Italian, as well as being the author of a number of short stories, the Novelle Morali (1782) by which he is best known.
Not in OCLC, ICCU, COPAC, KVK, any other database or catalogue consulted.
74STARCK, Johann August. DER TRIUMPH DER PHILOSOPHIE im achtzehnten Jahrhunderte
... Erster [-Zweyter] Theil. Germantown, bei Eduard Adalbert Rosenblatt. 1803.£ 385
FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo, pp. x, [ii], 563, [1] blank; [ii], iv, 428 [i.e. 528]; some misnumbering to pages in both volumes, some light browning throughout due to paper quality; bound in contemporary mottled boards, spines with paste paper labels lettered in black, spines a little sunned and minor wear to extremities, contemporary neat ownership markings on endpapers; a very good copy.
First edition of Starck’s anonymously published history of what he saw as a rationalist conspiracy against religion, the Church and monarchy, designed to facilitate an understanding of the revolution-torn state of Europe at the start of the nineteenth century.
Starck, a convert to Catholicism, a mason, and the founder of the Clerks of the Relaxed Observance, had previously studied oriental languages and taught for two years in Russia, and was also the author of a 1200 page apologia in 1787, in which he blamed enlightenment philosophy for what he saw as the imminent revolution in France. His pro-clerical, pro-aristocracy views may have been coloured by his employment at the time of writing as head court chaplain at Darmstadt. Nonetheless, as the nineteenth century progressed, Starck’s Triumph der Philosophie lost none of its resonance, being published in a new edition in 1834, 18 years after his death.
OCLC: 7150535.
Presentation Copy from the Author
75STEWART, Dugald. PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS ... Edinburgh: Printed by George Ramsay and Company, for William Creech 1810.£ 1,250
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY. 4to, pp. xii, lxxvi, 590; with the errata slip tipped in after p. xii, some minor foxing and browning in places (stronger foxing to gathering 3x) due to paper quality, but generally clean and crisp throughout; bound in full polished calf, boards ruled in gilt and decorated in blind, expertly rebacked preserving the original spine, lettered in gilt, light wear to extremities but still a handsome and desirable copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper ‘To Alexander Young Esquire From the Author’.
A desirable presentation copy of the first edition of Dugald Stewart’s most popular work in which he made many fine observations on taste and beauty.
‘His former work, on the philosophy of the human mind, has accordingly been more read than any other modern book on such subjects; and the volume before us, we think, is calculated to be still more popular. By being cast into the form of detached essays, it absolves the reader from the labour of systematic study, and at the same time dispenses with all that preparatory and elementary detail, which was unavoidable in the outset of a regular system ...’ (Jeffrey, review in the Edinburgh Review, vol. 17, 1810, pp. 167-211).
Essays in the volume include, ‘Locke’s Account of the sources of Human Knowledge’, ‘The Idealism of Berkeley’, and general observations ‘On the Sublime’ and ‘On Taste’. The work is dedicated by Stewart to the Swiss philosopher Prevost, who had translated his Elements of the philosophy of the Human Mind into French.
Chuo 352; Jessop p. 179; for a detailed study see McCosh, The Scottish Philosophy, pp. 275-306.
76STEWART, Dugald. ESQUISSES DE PHILOSOPHIE MORALE, par M. Dugald Stewart, Professeur a l’Université d’Édimbourg. Traduite de l’Anglais sur la IVe Édition par Th. Jouffroy, ancien maître de conférences de l’École Normale. A Paris, chez A. Johanneau, Librarie-Éditeur, 1826.£ 285
FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION. 8vo, [iv], clv, [i] blank, 236, index misnumbered, some light spotting and foxing, minor stain in gutter at head throughout (mainly light), contemporary inscription at head of title and small early library stamp of the College de Neufchateau; bound in contemporary red morocco backed boards, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, some minor discolouration to boards and light sunning to spine, but still a very good copy.
First French translation of Dugald Stewart’s Outlines of Moral Philosophy, his most important book. Stewart (1753-1828) was the pupil of Thomas Reid, the Scottish philosopher who had a substantial following on the continent, and especially in France.
In 1785 Stewart succeeded Adam Ferguson in the chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, a position which he held for twenty-four years and made the centre of intellectual and moral influence. His reputation attracted students from England and even the Continent and America, and he counted among them Sir Walter Scott, Lord Lauderdale, Henry Cockburn, Lord Brougham, James Mill and Sir Archibald Alison, to name but a few. The course of moral philosophy embraced, besides ethics proper, lectures on political philosophy or the theory of government. In 1793 he had published, what he termed, his ‘textbook’ for the use of students, which went through many editions.
‘Stewart was the first academic to detach the study of political economy from that of the theory of government and to treat each as a distinct branch of political science and it is in this methodological innovation rather than for any particular economic theory that his importance for political economy lies’ (N. Phillipson in New Palgrave).
This translation is prefaced by an extensive 150 page introduction by the translator Théodore Simon Jouffroy (1796-1842) who studied and disseminated the ‘Common Sense’ teachings of Reid and Stewart. ‘His enthusiasm for mental science, and his command over the language of popular exposition, made him a great international medium for the transfusion of ideas. He stood between Scotland and France and Germany and France; and ... he did serviceable even memorable work’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The work proved to be popular and was reprinted in 1829 as part of a collected edition of Stewart’s works with further impressions in 1833, 1841 and 1858.
Jessop p.178; not in Chuo; OCLC: 22619657.
77SULZER, Johann Georg. TABLEAU DES BEAUTÉS DE LA NATURE. Ouvrage traduit de l’Allemand de Mr. Sulzer, Prof. & Academicien de Berlin. Francfort sur le Mein, chez la Veuve Knoch & Esslinger, 1755.£ 225
FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION. 8vo, pp. [xxviii], 188; apart from some minor marking in places, a clean crisp copy throughout; uncut in the original publisher’s wraps with label on spine written in ink in a contemporary hand, slight wear to extremities, otherwise in remarkable original condition.
Rare French translation of Versuch einiger moralischen Betrachtungen über die Werke der Natur, by the Swiss physicist, philosopher and aesthetician, Johann Georg Sulzer (1720-1779).
Although nowadays best remembered for his works on aesthetics (in particular, the Allgemeine Theorie der Schönen Künste of 1771-74), Sulzer’s work covered many areas, from the psychology and physiology of taste (in the Nouvelle Théorie des plaisirs of 1767) to natural theology, in the present work. Enlightenment scepticism does not seem to have influenced Sulzer a great deal: the character of the work is betrayed by its title, and Sulzer’s main aim seems to be the gathering of evidences of intelligent and benevolent design from the various features of plants and animals, in the same vein as (although with rather less rigour than) Paley’s Natural Theology. From these evidences, Sulzer goes on to establish some moral conclusions.
Elected to the Berliner Akademie in 1750, Sulzer became director of its philosophical section in 1775. He was the first person to treat the question of feeling in any systematic way, influenced by Leibniz, but his greatest contribution to the history of philosophy was through translation: it was his edition of Hume’s first Enquiry which awoke Kant from his “dogmatic slumber”, leading to the Critique of Pure Reason.
OCLC: 43900791 records just one copy only, at the University of Oxford.
The bad influence of British Philosophy, with chapters on Locke, Hobbes and Mandeville
78TABARAUD, Mathieu Mathurin. HISTOIRE CRITIQUE DU PHILOSOPHISME ANGLOIS, depuis son origine jusqu’à son introduction en France, inclusivement ... Tome Premier [-Second]. A Paris, chez L. Duprat-Duverger, rue des Grands-Augustins, 1806.£ 225
FIRST EDITION. Two vols, 8vo, pp. [iv], iv, 504; [iv], 466, [1] Table, [1] blank; light foxed in places, otherwise clean throughout; uncut in the original pink publisher’s wraps, spines with labels titled in ink, some rubbing and a few minor marks, otherwise a very good copy.
First edition of this comprehensive survey of British philosophy and “philosophism” by the French theologian and philosopher Mathieu Mathurain Tabaraud. Originally planned merely to be a section of a projected Histoire du philosophisme françois, the work is designed as a survey of the influence of English philosophy on French thought, and a study of the characters of several notable English philosophers.
The Jansenist theologian and writer Mathieu Mathurin Tabaraud (1744-1832) is characterized in the Nouvelle biographie française as a ‘controversiste’ who emigrated to England after the revolution, and contributed articles to the Times and anti-republican periodicals. In the present work he accuses British philosophers (many of the ‘English’ philosophers were actually Scots) of having undermined religion in France. He uses the term ‘philosophisme’ as opposite to ‘christianisme’.
OCLC: 23396048.
Essays on Moral Philosophy
79TITTEL,GottlobAugust.ERLÄUTERUNGEN DER THEORETISCHEN UND PRAKTISCHEN PHILOSOPHIE nach Herrn Feders Ordnung: Moral. Frankfurt am Main: bei Johann Gottlieb Garbe, 1785.£ 350
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [xxiv], 358, [1] errata; minor worming to foot of first eight leaves (not affecting the text) and light waterstain to final c. 60 pages (mainly marginal but just touching the text towards the end), otherwise a clean copy throughout; in contemporary half sheep over mottled boards, spine tooled in gilt with contrasting orange and green labels lettered in gilt, head and tail chipped and corners rubbed, some evidence of worming to spine (but not obtrusive); an attractive copy.
First edition of this book of essays on moral philosophy by Gottlob August Tittel (1739-1816), part of his series of works under the general title Erläuterungen der theoretischen und praktischen Philosophie nach Feders Ordnung.
The present work contains essays on morality and virtue as an introduction to moral philosophy, arguing for the importance of the study of morality, and describing in detail the concept of virtue. A third essay examines methods of teaching moral philosophy. There then follows a “Sittenlehre der Vernunft”, in which many of the central concepts of morality are discussed, from virtue to friendship, cleanliness to the right use of time.
Gottlob Tittel was professor of philosophy at Karlsruhe, and a follower of the Göttingen anti-Kantian Johann Feder. The two other essays in this series appeared in 1785 (Logik) and 1786 (Materien).
OCLC: 51429156 records just one copy, at the University of Southern California.
80TRESCHOW, Niels. MORAL FOR FOLK OG STAT. To Dele. Kiøbenhavn, Trykt paa
Universitets-boghandler Fr. Brummers Forlag, 1811.£ 650
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [viii], 236; [iv], 224; apart from a few light marks, a clean fresh copy throughout; uncut in the original blue wraps, upper wrapper with library stamp (deaccessioned), minor dust-soiling, spine defective with loss of paper, but still holding firm by the original stitching; a very good copy.
First edition of one of the key works by arguably the most important pre-twentieth century Norwegian philosopher, Niels Treschow (1751-1833).
Treschow was the first professor of philosophy at the University of Christiana (later Oslo), taking up his post two years after the University’s foundation in 1811. Previously he had been for ten years professor at Copenhagen. In the present treatise, he presents a survey of moral and political philosophy; he discusses morality in general, national characters, and the improvement of national administration, before examining the nature of virtue and its relationship to the intellect, and discussing the theory and importance of education. A final chapter examines the relationship between intelligence, science, and wisdom.
Nowadays best known as one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the University of Oslo, whose main building still bears his name, Treschow was born into a Norwegian pietist family, and studied at Trondheim before moving to Copenhagen in 1804. His philosophy combined the influence of the German rationalists with elements of neoplatonism, although he also exhibited traces of Spinoza. In his political thought, he anticipated a number of socialist ideas.
OCLC records just three copies only, at Indiana, Minnesota and Saint Olaf College, Kierkegaard Library.