This book examines the relationship between freedom and true knowledge, which is a central part of the hotly debated issue of human freedom. Is truth necessary for the attainment of freedom? Does a free life require a clear understanding of reality? And if so, to what extent? These questions lead back to a classical philosophical debate, of which the first major chapter was written by Plato. In the dialogues, he describes human life as a peculiar form of imprisonment and calls for a global liberation of human cognition. This work analyses this ambitious project and its unique influence on the work of two modern authors, Hegel and Nietzsche, who explicitly linked the notions of ignorance and truth to those of bondage and freedom—or slavery and mastery—and whose philosophies are also centred on the liberation of human consciousness. Following a historical and systematic approach, this book is of interest to readers who are reasonably acquainted with the history of ancient and modern philosophy, including undergraduate and graduate students, as well as scholars working on Plato, German Idealism, Nietzsche and other related fields.

This collection of essays sheds light on the writings of leading figures in the history of political philosophy by exploring a nexus of questions concerning mastery and slavery in the human soul. To this end, Masters and Slaves elucidates archetypal human alternatives in their import for political life: the philosopher and king; the lover of wisdom and the lover of glory; the king and the tyrant; and finally, the master and the slave. Palmer re-examines these ideas as a framework for achieving a deeper understanding of the work of famous thinkers—from the ancient to modern times—including Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau. As well, the book addresses distinctions between the 'ancients' and the 'moderns,' and touches on the work of contemporary theorists such as Leo Strauss, George Parkin Grant, and Allan Bloom.

In this path-breaking work, Susan Buck-Morss draws new connections between history, inequality, social conflict, and human emancipation. Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History offers a fundamental reinterpretation of Hegel's master-slave dialectic and points to a way forward to free critical theoretical practice from the prison-house of its own debates. Historicizing the thought of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and the actions taken in the Haitian Revolution, Buck-Morss examines the startling connections between the two and challenges us to widen the boundaries of our historical imagination. She finds that it is in the discontinuities of historical flow, the edges of human experience, and the unexpected linkages between cultures that the possibility to transcend limits is discovered. It is these flashes of clarity that open the potential for understanding in spite of cultural differences. What Buck-Morss proposes amounts to a "new humanism," one that goes beyond the usual ideological implications of such a phrase to embrace a radical neutrality that insists on the permeability of the space between opposing sides and as it reaches for a common humanity.

This book examines the relationship between freedom and true knowledge, which is a central part of the hotly debated issue of human freedom. Is truth necessary for the attainment of freedom? Does a free life require a clear understanding of reality? And if so, to what extent? These questions lead back to a classical philosophical debate, of which the first major chapter was written by Plato. In the dialogues, he describes human life as a peculiar form of imprisonment and calls for a global liberation of human cognition. This work analyses this ambitious project and its unique influence on the work of two modern authors, Hegel and Nietzsche, who explicitly linked the notions of ignorance and truth to those of bondage and freedom-or slavery and mastery-and whose philosophies are also centred on the liberation of human consciousness. Following a historical and systematic approach, this book is of interest to readers who are reasonably acquainted with the history of ancient and modern philosophy, including undergraduate and graduate students, as well as scholars working on Plato, German Idealism, Nietzsche and other related fields.

A new edition of the bestselling classic – published with a special introduction to mark its 10th anniversary This pioneering account sets out to understand the structure of the human brain – the place where mind meets matter. Until recently, the left hemisphere of our brain has been seen as the ‘rational’ side, the superior partner to the right. But is this distinction true? Drawing on a vast body of experimental research, Iain McGilchrist argues while our left brain makes for a wonderful servant, it is a very poor master. As he shows, it is the right side which is the more reliable and insightful. Without it, our world would be mechanistic – stripped of depth, colour and value.