Isaiah Berlin's new book contains two studies. The first deals with the eighteenth-century Italian philosopher, Giovanni Battista Vico, a profound and original thinker who, after being overshadowed by his contemporary, Montesquieu, has been rediscovered at intervals ever since, but has even more to say to the present age than to his own. Johann Gottfried Herder, the subject of the second study, although commonly regarded as the father of European nationalism, originated three, perhaps equally influential, currents of thought: populism; the idea of artistic commitment and of art as the voice of its time and social milieu; and that of the autonomy of cultures and the equal validity of many dissimilar systems of values. The two essays attempt, from different points of view, to assess the value of identifying the progress of modern civilization with that of the natural sciences, and, in particular, to consider the criticisms of this position from within the ranks of the Enlightenment.

"Here is the first Kant-biography in English since Paulsen's and Cassirer's only full-scale study of Kant's philosophy. On a very deep level, all of Cassirer's philosophy was based on Kant's, and accordingly this book is Cassirer's explicit coming to terms with his own historical origins. It sensitively integrates interesting facts about Kant's life with an appreciation and critique of his works. Its value is enhanced by Stephen Körner's Introduction, which places Cassirer's Kant-interpretation in its historical and contemporary context." - Lewis White Beck ; "The first English translation (well done by James Haden) of a 60-year-old classic intellectual biography. Those readers who know Kant only through the first Critique will find their understanding of that work deepened and illuminated by a long explication of the pre-critical writings, but perhaps the most distinctive contribution is Cassirer's argument that the later Critiques, and especially the Critique of Judgment, must be understood not as merely applying the principles of the first to other areas but as subsuming the latter into a larger and more comprehensive framework." - Frederick J. Crown, The Key Reporter ; "Kant's Life and Thought is that rare achievement: a lucid and highly readable account of the life and work of one of the world's profoundest thinkers. Now for the first time available in an admirable English translation, the book introduces the reader to two of the finest minds in the history of philosophy." - Ashley Montagu --

"Whether we are to regard Friedrich Nietzsche as a philosopher, a cultural critic, and 'amoralist' or a pre-fascist ideologist, it is certain that his work is one of the main sources of twentieth-century western thought. Formulations such as 'God is dead' or 'the world is the product of the will to power and nothing else besides', and Nietzsche's belief that true value lies in a morality of strenuousness have become part of the experience of our age. His aim is to unmask what he considered the intellectual self-deception of his time and to create a new rejuvenating mythology. His assault on the abstraction and over-systematization of traditional philosophy resulted in a body of writing - much of it published posthumously - which is unsystematic and often contradictory, yet all unmistakably characterized by his philosophical imaginativeness. J. P. Stern's new study offers a careful exegesis of what Nietzsche said and a critical assessment of its importance. In a series of analyses of Nietzsche's 'philosophical experiments' Professor Stern unwinds the many strands of the work - the moral-existential, the religious, the linguistic, the aesthetic - and shows how they all interweave in a single, powerful philosophical enterprise: The enhancement of man in Nietzsche's time and ours. The means to this end Nietzsche saw as the pursuit of truth in all its uncompromising harshness and essential relativity. Stern also considers the political implications of the writings in the light of later developments in German history; he includes a detailed survey of Nietzsche's life; and he contrasts Nietzsche's achievement with that of Marx and Freud as the two thinkers who were to exercise a comparable influence in the twentieth century. This is the only full-scale study of Nietzsche's philosophy which takes issue with the language and literary forms in which his writings are cast. It will provide an exhilarating introduction for those who are unfamiliar with or only beginning to explore the writings of this most vibrant and paradoxical of writers. In addition the book will offer new insights for those who find in the work of Nietzsche an enduring source of fascination and stimulation." -- Book jacket.