The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Shakespeare is essential reading for students of aesthetics, philosophy of literature and ethics as well as those in Shakespeare-related fields such as literature and theatre and drama studies.

List of Figures. List of Contributors. Preface. Acknowledgments. Introduction, Craig Bourne and Emily Caddick Bourne. Part 1: Situating Shakespeare. Chapter 1 Shakespeare, Montaigne, and Philosophical Anti-Philosophy, Philip Smallwood. Chapter 2 The (New and Old) Metaphysical Reading of Shakespeare, Géza Kállay. Chapter 3 On the Kinship of Shakespeare and Plato, Daryl Kaytor. Part 2: Philosophy of Language. Chapter 4 Lear as a Tragedy of Errors: 'He hath ever but slenderly known himself', Garry L. Hagber. Chapter 5 Figures Unethical: Circumlocution and Evasion in Act I of Macbeth, Scott F. Crider. Chapter 6 Conversational Perversions, Implicature and Sham Cancelling in Othello, Craig Bourne and Emily Caddick Bourne. Chapter 7 'Seize it, if thou dar'st': Three Types of Imperative Conditional in Richard II, Borut Trpin. Chapter 8 The Sonnets and Attunement, Maximillian de Gaynesford. Chapter 9 'To Thine Own Self Be True': 'Truthiness', Shakespeare, Eco and the Open Work, Michael Troy Shell. Chapter 10 Wittgenstein's Enigmatic Remarks on Shakespeare, Wolfgang Huemer. Part 3: The Ethical and The Political. Chapter 11, Shakespeare, Intention, and the Ethical Force of the Involuntary, Christopher Crosbie. Chapter 12 'Thou weep'st to make them drink': Hospitality and Mourning in Timon of Athens, Sophie Emma Battell. Chapter 13 Shakespeare, Moral Judgements and Moral Realism, Matthew H. Kramer. Chapter 14 Blindness and Double Vision in Richard III: Zamir on Shakespeare on Moral Philosophy, Rafe McGregor. Chapter 15 Horatio's Stoic Philosophy, Jan H. Blits. Chapter 16 Sovereignty, Social Contract and the State of Nature in King Lear, Stella Achilleos. Chapter 17 Justice - Some Reflections on Measure for Measure, Tzachi Zamir. Chapter 18 Kiss me K...: Engendering Judgment in Kant's 1st Critique and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Jennifer Ann Bates. Part 4: Epistemology and Scepticism. Chapter 19 The Duty of Enquiry, or Why Othello Was a Fool, Veli Mitova. Chapter 20 The Evil Deceiver and the Evil Truth Teller: Descartes, Iago, and Scepticism, Dianne Rothleder. Chapter 21 Climates of Trust in Macbeth, Julia Reinhard Lupton. Chapter 22 The Sceptic's Surrender: Believing Partly, Anita Gilman Sherman. Part 5: The Existential. Chapter 23 'Nothing will come out of nothing': existential dimension of interpersonal relationships in King Lear, Katarzyna Burzynska. Chapter 24 'And nothing brings me all things': Shakespeare's Philosophy of Nothing, Jessica Chiba. Chapter 25 Shakespeare and The Absurd, Raymond Angelo Belliotti. Chapter 26 Nietzsche's Hamlet Puzzle: Life Affirmation in The Birth of Tragedy, Katie Brennan. Chapter 27 Time and the Other in Cymbeline, James A. Knapp. Part 6: Self, Mind and Identity. Chapter 28 Shakespeare and Selfhood, Kevin Curran. Chapter 29 Shakespeare and the Mind, Miranda Anderson. Chapter 30 Macbeth and the Self, Colin McGinn. Chapter 31 'Hit it, hit it, hit it': Rigid Designation in Love's Labour's Lost, Andrew Cutrofello. Chapter 32 Love, identity and the way of ideas in Twelfth Night, Robin Le Poidevin. Part 7: Art and the Aesthetic. Chapter 33 A Taste for Slaughter: Stephen Gosson, Titus Andronicus, and the Appeal of Evil, Joel Elliot Slotkin. Chapter 34 Grotesque Laughter as a Coping Mechanism in Titus Andronicus, Adele-France Jourdan. Chapter 35 Seduced by Romanticism: Re-imagining Shakespearean Catharsis, Patrick Gray. Chapter 36 Beauty and Time in the Sonnets, Peter Lamarque. Part 8: Performance and Engagement. Chapter 37 Role-Playing on Stage, D.H. Mellor. Chapter 38 Building Character: Shakespearean Characters and Their Instantiations in the Worlds of Performances, E.M. Dadlez. Chapter 39 Shakespeare's Theatrical Openings, James R. Hamilton. Chapter 40 Shakespeare's Embodied Stoicism, Donovan Sherman. Chapter 41 The History Plays: Fiction or Non-fiction? Derek Matravers. Index.