Friedrich Engels – Der Ursprung der Familie, 1884
Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigenthums und des Staats. Im Anschluss an Lewis H. Morgan’s Forschungen. Hottingen-Zürich: Schweizerische Genossenschaftsbuchdruckerei, 1884.
David Hume – A Treatise of Human Nature in German, 1790, 1791, 1792
David Hume über die menschliche Natur, aus dem Englischen, nebst kritischen Versuchen zur Beurteilung dieses Werks von Ludwig Heinrich Jakob. Erster Band: Ueber den menschlichen Verstand. Zweiter Band: Ueber die Leidenschaften. Dritter Band: Ueber die Moral. Halle: Hemmerde und Schwetschke, 1790, 1791, 1792.
Malebranche – De inquirenda veritate libri sex, 1685
4to, [i], [i], [xiv], 12, [x], 511, [8], 143 pp., elaborately blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, a little dusty and marked, two clasps in good order, all edges red, front free endpaper with some holes and early inscription ‘Prohibitus Decr. 4 Mart. 1709’, scattered foxing, some sections browned, a good copy with wide margins in an attractive contemporary binding.
Martin Heidegger – Die Kategorien- und Bedeutungslehre des Duns Scotus, 1916
Signed by the author. First edition of Heidegger’s Habilitationsschrift, ‘The Categories and Theory of Meaning of Duns Scotus’. Large 8vo, [viii], 245 pp., original printed stiff wrappers, front hinge with short tears top and bottom, covers darkened towards edges and with slight show-through where a bookplate was once glued inside front cover, a crack down the spine but textblock still tight, title-page inscribed ‘Vom Verfasser, M.H.’, a very good copy, entirely unopened.
William Smellie – The Philosophy of Natural History. Edinburgh, 1790
First edition of the last work published during the lifetime of the Edinburgh printer, naturalist and antiquary William Smellie (1740-95). A second volume, edited by his son Alexander Smellie, was published posthumously in 1799. Chuo 194. Smellie was one of the initiators and authors of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. His Philosophy of Natural History ‘became a […]
William Hogarth – Zergliederung der Schönheit, 1754
Zergliederung der Schönheit, die schwankenden Begriffe von dem Geschmack festzusetzen. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von C. Mylius. London, Andreas Linde und Hannover, J.W. Schmidt, 1754.
Hegel – Wissenschaft der Logik, 1812-16
Wissenschaft der Logik. Erster Band. Die objective Logik. Zweytes Buch. Die Lehre vom Wesen. Zweiter Band. Wissenschaft der subjectiven Logik oder die Lehre vom Begriff. Nürnberg: Johann Leonhard Schrag, 1812, 1813, 1816.
Spinoza – first German translation of the Ethics, 1744
First German translation of Spinoza’s Ethics (1677), and of Wolff’s attempted refutation (from his Theologia naturalis, pars II, 1737). The translator was Johann Lorenz Schmidt (1702-49), translator also of the controversial ‘Wertheim Bible’ (1735). ‘This crucial publication … represents both the first of Spinoza’s writings to appear in German and, simultaneously, the first printed vernacular […]
Jack Smart – ‘Sensations and Brain Processes’, presentation offprint, 1959
Jack Smart (1920 – 2012) was one of the great Australian philosophers of the twentieth century, and this is his most famous paper which changed philosophy of mind forever. It puts forward his ‘type-identity’ theory of mind — that consciousness and sensations are nothing over and above (i.e. are identical with, or precisely the same […]
Jeremy Bentham – Defence of Usury, 1787
Rare first edition of Bentham’s earliest work in political economy. ‘It is hard to exaggerate the importance of this work’ (Peter Johnson).