Philosophy

Combining some the most influential and incisive voices, and covering many cutting edge issues in bioethics today, the new Routledge Companion to Bioethics is an invaluable resources for students and scholars alike. A comprehensive reference guide to contemporary concerns in bioethics, it covers a changing landscape shaped by globalization, health disparities, and rapidly advancing technologies. While also covering more traditional topics, this volume fully captures this recent shift and foreshadows the resulting developments in bioethics.

What do habit, Buddhism, bioethics and gothic literature have in common? Each are the subject of one of our Outstanding Academic Titles as picked by Choice magazine! 

We've had 32 titles chosen as Outstanding Academic Titles, and we've made excerpts from four of these titles free to view - On Habit, Bioethics: the Basics, The Gothic World and Buddhism Goes to the Movies. Each excerpt contains the first chapter to give a flavor of the book, so what are you waiting for? 

If you want to see more of the Outstanding Academic Titles from Routledge, you can view them all here. 

Redefine what it means to be 'masculine' or 'feminine' with the Routledge Classic Gender Trouble:Feminism and the Subversion of Identity by Judith Butler.

Routledge Classics doesn’t stand still. In 2015 we are bringing you a Classic a Month to spotlight the pedigree of our list, along with an interview with an eminent thinker about why this is their favorite Routledge Classic. In February, we are pleased to present Judith Butler's timeless and powerful Gender Trouble, with a hardback version on its way in March. Routledge Classics also spoke with Dr Nina Power, author, contributor to The Guardian, and Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton, UK.

The debate over gender definitions and inequalities rages on in academic scholarship and popular culture today as strongly as it did when Judith Butler first wrote Gender Trouble. Butler's work will forever be an essential contribution to resolving what it really means to be female. Such a book cannot exist without causing controversy, and Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial. 

Does Butler's Gender Trouble still apply to current gender issues? Read our Q&A with Dr Nina Power below for her take. You can also check out this excerpt from the text, Preface and Chapter One: Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire, and Butler's recent interview withThe New York Times' George Yancy, What’s Wrong With ‘All Lives Matter’?.

Tell us your thoughts - @Routledge_Clas #routledgeclassics.

Beat ‘Blue Monday’ with the Routledge Classic The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell

Routledge Classics doesn’t stand still. In 2015 we are bringing you a Classic a Month to spotlight the pedigree of our list, along with an interview with an eminent thinker about why this is their favorite Routledge Classic. In January we are delighted to showcase The Conquest of Happiness and an interview with the philosopher A.C.Grayling, whose preface features in the Routledge Classic edition.

The current interest in happiness studies shows no signs of abating, with academic studies into well-being and happiness research competing with a proliferation of self-help experts, books and resources to tell us with how we can attain and retain happiness in life. This is nothing new though, as Bertrand Russell demonstrated in his classic title The Conquest of Happiness. Russell encourages zest, a retreat from self-absorption and an interest in the world around us in order to strive to attain happiness. Pre-dating our current fascination with self-help books by decades; this is a true classic offering sage advice for a satisfying life, beyond the facile quick fixes of today.

Is Russell’s The Conquest of Happiness still as relevant today? Read an extract What Makes People Unhappy? here, and our Q&A with philosopher A. C. Grayling below.

Tell us your thoughts - @Routledge_Clas #routledgeclassics.
 

Two of the latest titles in the Routledge Philosophers series are receiving high praise from academics around the world. Published in October, Hume by Don Garrett has been described as 'important and illuminating' by Paul Russell of the University of British Columbia and as 'an outstanding, incredibly stimulating book' by the University of Oxford's P.J.E. Kail.

Published in November 2014, Steven Fesmire's Dewey is 'A crisply written, deftly argued introduction.' (Thomas Alexander, Southern Illinois University).

Philip Kitcher of Columbia University says, 'Fesmire demonstrates the vital relevance of Dewey's ideas today, not only for philosophers but for anyone willing to think hard about the problems of our times. Lucid, informed, and admirably wide-ranging, this book is a superb introduction to the many-sided reflections of America's greatest philosopher.'

Routledge is proud to produce some of the most acclaimed, cutting-edge scholarship available in Philosophy, and we're pleased to highlight the following positive reviews from CHOICE. Click on the titles below to see what CHOICE and other independent reviewers had to say about these great books.

Herbert Spencer: Legacies, edited by Mark Francis, Michael W. Taylor is Essential!

"The contributions in this essential addition to scholarly collections are insightful critiques of Spencer’s thought, influence, and connections to the contemporary world. … Each author introduces a different aspect of Spencer’s thought, puts it into late-19th-through early-20th-century context, identifies its contemporary influence, and suggests its ongoing relevance. Spencer scholars will find things with which to quibble, but overall this is the best and most comprehensive consideration of Spencer’s place and influence in the broad history of ideas since 1900. Summing Up: Essential." - CHOICE, April, 2015