Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge Books

Book SynopsisIn a letter of 1932, Karl Popper described Die beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge as a child of crises, above all of the crisis of physics.'Finally available in English, it is a major contribution to the philosophy of science, epistemology and twentieth century philosophy generally.The two fundamental problems of knowledge that lie at the centre of the book are the problem of induction, that although we are able to observe only a limited number of particular events, science nevertheless advances unrestricted universal statements; and the problem of demarcation, which asks for a separating line between empirical science and non-science.Popper seeks to solve these two basic problems with his celebrated theory of falsifiability, arguing that the inferences made in science are not inductive but deductive; science does not start with observations and proceed to generalise them but with problems, Table of ContentsPreface 1978 Introduction 1978 Exposition [1933] Book I: The Problem of Induction (Experience and Hypothesis) The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge Volume I 1. Formulation of the Problem 2. Deductivism and Inductivism 3. The Problem of Induction 4. The Normal-Statement Positions 5. Kant and Fries 6. The Probability Positions 7. The Pseudo-Statement Positions 8. Conventionalism 9. Strictly Universal Statements and Singular Statements 10. Back to the Pseudo-Statement Positions 11. Pseudo-Statement Positions and the Concept of Meaning 12. Conclusion Appendix: The Critique of the Problem of Induction in Schematic Representation Book II: The Problem of Demarcation (Experience and Metaphysics) The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge Volume II (Fragments) Part 1: Fragments 1932 1. Sketch of an Introduction 2. Formulation of the Problem 3. On the Question of Eliminating Subjectivist Psychologism 4. Transition to the Theory of Method 5. The Method of Exhaustion. -- "State of Affairs" and "Fact". -- Universal Diversity 6. Sketch of a Theory of Empirical-Scientific Methods (Theory of Experience) Part 2: Fragments 1933 7. Orientation 8. Philosophy 9. The Problem of Methodology 10. Comments on the So-Called Problem of Free Will 11. The Problem of Free Will 12. The Problem of the Randomness in Probability Statements Appendix: Summary Excerpt (1932) from The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge. Editor’s Postscript. Index of Names. Index of Subjects.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in in 1976, Hermann Levin Goldschmidt's Contradiction Set Free, (Freiheit für den Widerspruch), reflects the push to explore new forms of critical thinking that gained momentum in the decade between Theodor Adorno's Negative Dialectics of 1966 and Paul Feyerabend's Against Method in 1975.The book articulates Goldschmidt's reclamation of an epistemologically critical position that acknowledges the deep underlying link between the modes of production of knowledge and the social and political life they produce. In signalling a breakout from the academic rut and its repressive hold, Goldschmidt pointed beyond the ossified methods of a philosophical discourse whose oppressive consequences could no longer be ignored.Contradiction Set Free makes available for the first time in English a pivotal work by one of the great critical thinkers of the 20th century.Trade Review[Goldschmidt's] writing evinces the clear and straightforward development and exposition of a thought ... [An] impressive work. * Continental Philosophy Review *What if, instead of trying compulsively to avoid contradiction, we embrace it as an opportunity? This work discusses in an entirely original and highly lucid way some of the consequences this change of attitude might have for our views about such phenomena as meaning, freedom, guilt, politics and technology. * Raymond Geuss, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Cambridge, UK *Contradiction Set Free is one of Herman Levin Goldschmidt's most important books and it has lost none of its power since its publication forty years ago.This meticulous translation, together with Willi Goetschel's extremely helpful introduction, should go a long way to seeing that he is finally given his rightful due in the English-speaking world. * Robert Bernasconi, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies, Penn State University, USA. *Table of ContentsI. The Discovery of Contradiction 1. Contradiction From the Beginning 2. Contradiction in Thought 3. Contradiction in Faith 4. Plato’s Dialectic II. The Forgotten and Overblown Contradiction 1. The Unity of the Middle Ages 2. The All of the Middle Ages 3. The Anxiety of the Middle Ages 4. The End of the Middle Ages III. The Repression of Contradiction 1. From Opposition to Contradiction 2. From Hegel to Marx and Kierkegaard 3. Mao Zedong’s Contradiction Set Free 4. The Weakness of Every Dialectic IV. Attempted Displacement 1. Freedom of Technology 2. Freedom Through Technology 3. Technology Contra Freedom 4. Freedom Contra Technology V. Attempted Oppression 1. The Completeness of the Modern World 2. The Totalitarian Arrogation of Totality 3. The Fascist Arrogation of Force 4. The Right to Contradiction as the Right to Resistance VI. Attempted Eradication 1. Attempted Sabotage 2. Attempted Postponement 3. Attempted Dissipation 4. Attempted Annihilation VII. The Challenge of Contradiction 1. Outraged Freedom 2. Freedom Contra the State 3. Freedom through Challenge 4. Freedom contra Freedom VIII. The Contradictions of Freedom 1. Freedom instead of Subjugation 2. Freedom despite Liberation 3. Freedom despite Freedom 4. Limits of Freedom—in Freedom IX. The Unavoidable Contradiction 1. The Old Meaning 2. The Lost Meaning 3. The Enduring Meaning 4. The Reclaimed Meaning X. The Unacceptable Contradiction 1. Guilt and Exculpation 2. Guilt and Turning 3. The Good of Turning 4. In the End only Good! XI. Set Contradiction Free! 1. Dialogic instead of Dialectic 2. Dialogic without Dialogism 3. Set Contradiction Free! 4. Instead of Aufhebung — Aufgeräumtheit XII. In Contradiction to the World 1. The Challenged Environment 2. Challenging Maturity 3. Costs Claimed 4. Required: Humans! Notes

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Book SynopsisIn the early modern period, ignorance was commonly perceived as a sin, a flaw, a defect, and even a threat to religion and the social order. Yet praises of ignorance were also expressed in the same context. Reclaiming the long-lasting legacy of medieval doctrines of ignorance and taking a comparative perspective, Sandrine Parageau tells the history of the apparently counter-intuitive moral, cognitive and epistemological virtues attributed to ignorance in the long seventeenth century (1580s-1700) in England and in France. With close textual analysis of hitherto neglected sources and a reassessment of canonical philosophical works by Montaigne, Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and others, Parageau specifically examines the role of ignorance in the production of knowledge, identifying three common virtues of ignorance as a mode of wisdom, a principle of knowledge, and an epistemological instrument, in philosophical and theological works. How could an essentially negative notion be turned into something profitable and even desirable? Taken in the context of Renaissance humanism, the Reformation and the "Scientific Revolution"—which all called for a redefinition and reaffirmation of knowledge—ignorance, Parageau finds, was not dismissed in the early modern quest for renewed ways of thinking and knowing. On the contrary, it was assimilated into the philosophical and scientific discourses of the time. The rehabilitation of ignorance emerged as a paradoxical cornerstone of the nascent modern science.Trade Review"Parageau has assembled a rich set of texts, and she reads them with care and nuance, establishing 'ignorance' as a key word in early modern Europe."—Paula Findlen, Stanford University"Was a heightened appreciation of ignorance crucial to the new science of the seventeenth century? That is Parageau's insightful claim, based on new attention to the legacy of medieval negative theology among other sources."—Ann Blair, Harvard University"This is a wonderful history of the humans who went deepest into understanding that we cannot always understand. Philosophy, religion, and science wouldn't have progressed as it has without them. Perhaps we should take time, with Rumsfeld and with Locke, to consider the known unknowns."—Michael M. Rosen, Washington Examiner"Bacon, Boyle, Gassendi, Descartes, Locke, Baxter, and Bunyan, among others, provide multiple examples of paradoxical nuance for Parageau to explicate, which she does gallantly and persuasively.... Recommended."—S. Young, CHOICE"Parageau... contributes a valuable work to our understanding of how English and French theologians and philosophers developed and refashioned ignorance and its many meanings.... A comparison of the two countries' intellectual histories of ignorance is much needed, and her book identifies and illuminates the debates about ignorance that echoed across the Channel."—Catherine Abou-Nemeh, H-AlbionTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Fortunes of Docta ignorantia in Early Modern England and France 2. English Experimental Philosophy and Doctrines of Ignorance 3. Ignorance and the Internal Light 4. Ignorance, Inspiration, and Religious Knowledge 5. Fictions of Ignorance 6. Ignorance and Chance Discovery 7. John Locke's Anthropology of Ignorance Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIn The Rise of Neoliberal Philosophy: Human Capital, Profitable Knowledge, and the Love of Wisdom, Brandon Absher argues that the neoliberal transformation of higher education has resulted in a paradigm shift in philosophy in the United States, leading to the rise of neoliberal philosophy. Neoliberal philosophy seeks to attract investment by demonstrating that it can produce optimal return. Further, philosophers in the neoliberal paradigm internalize and reproduce the values of the prevailing social order in their work, reorienting philosophical desire toward the production of attractive commodities. The aim of philosophy in the neoliberal university, Absher shows, has become the production of human capital and profitable knowledge.Trade Review"This is an important book that should be part of a national conversation at APA conferences and in all philosophy departments. Professional philosophers ought to ask ourselves what kind of philosophy we support and when (not if) will marginalized, especially BIPOC faculty, move to the center to reconceptualize the discipline from below. As someone who hosts a large philosophy for children’s project at various educational sites, including a forest school for unschooled children, I was pleased to learn that such an initiative is validated as 'two-dimensional' philosophizing. In fact, as Brandon Absher argues, the Neoliberal University tolerates only one-kind: one-dimensional philosophy that performs its performativity for optimization of ROIs, which, of course, is nothing short of sophistry in our late capitalist era. With a stirring call for action, he deftly critiques the monochromatic content and demographics of most philosophy departments and implores us to engage in a pedagogy of discontent." -- Mechthild Nagel, SUNY Cortland"Brandon Absher offers an important and timely update to John McCumber’s argument that American philosophy sold itself out to the political needs of Cold War America, except now it has succumbed to profit hungry neoliberalism. The author shows how this has fundamentally altered and adulterated what it is to do philosophy, further shifting it away from love and wisdom towards profitable knowledge." -- Justin Pack, CSU Stanislaus"Drawing upon thinkers such as Hebert Marcuse, Wendy Brown, and Jean-François Lyotard , The Rise of Neoliberal Philosophy diagnoses the many ills that have befallen philosophy in the contemporary market-driven university while proposing a radical cure. Returning to the roots of philosophy in the figure of Socrates, Absher argues that philosophy must work together with the oppressed masses that neoliberalism forgot in order to show how another world is possible." -- Corey McCall, Cornell Prison Education Program"Brandon Absher offers a thoughtful treatment of the effects of neoliberalism on the discipline of philosophy. While many in the humanities attempt to make the case for their discipline’s value to neoliberalism, Absher challenges us to chart a new path. After analyzing the transition from Cold War Philosophy to Neoliberal Philosophy, he imagines new possibilities for the practice of philosophy that are more capacious, inclusive of diverse publics, and liberatory. The Rise of Neoliberal Philosophy will be of interest to those outside the field of philosophy, as well, as Absher presents a helpful framework for understanding many of the troubling changes within higher education over the past century." -- Sarah Vitale, Ball State University"Absher rightly argues that the Neoliberal University has become 'one-dimensional' in adjusting us all to 'the prevailing social order.' We know that our social order has hurled us into global warming and that to stay our course is a 'suicide pact.' We need new philosophies and new theories of the university. A future is only possible if we become different, which begins with thinking differently." -- Tanya Loughead, Canisius CollegeAbsher’s writing is clear and his argumentation is solid. The focus of most books on neoliberalism and academia is on the university in general, but Absher narrows the attention to the discipline of philosophy. For philosophers this brings the analysis much closer to home. It enables the author to turn a critical eye to the language and practices of key institutional powerbrokers like the philosophical gourmet and the APA…. As Absher correctly notes, neoliberalism tends to suck everything into itself. Frankly it is not clear that academic philosophers have the integrity to do what needs to be done. Further analysis is needed on why not: if philosophers are thinkers, why does there seem to be so much thoughtlessness and inaction about neoliberalization? Of course, that the book leads to further questions is an indication that it is asking important ones. Hopefully it will be widely read and inspire change. * Radical Philosophy Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Philosophy in the Neoliberal UniversityChapter 2: The Performativity of Neoliberal PhilosophyChapter 3: The One-Dimensionality of Neoliberal PhilosophyChapter 4: Diversity and Neoliberal PhilosophyChapter 5: Toward an Alternative ParadigmConclusionBibliography

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Book SynopsisWhat is 'truth' in today's freewheeling, pluralistic world, without certainties or fixed ideas? Does it lie in the Reason of Descartes and Kant? Is it Derrida's idea of an event, still being made? Or, according to Nietzsche, an ensemble of fictions? Internationally renowned philosopher John D. Caputo explores truth in the postmodern age.Trade ReviewCaputo's entertaining investigation into the nature of truth . . . sets out his case confidently, enlisting Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Derrida as his allies. (His explanation of Derrida's thought is one of the clearest that I've read.) . . . The starting point for a more sophisticated discussion -- David Wolf * Prospect *Caputo has done a fine job of clarifying and classifying the postmodernist approach to truth and reality. His readable and eloquent book is an excellent guide to the outlook common in a certain strain of Continental European philosophy * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Knowledge, Mind, and the Given serves three purposes, and it serves them very well. First, it patiently, accurately and comprehensively supplies the necessary information about the historical and contemporaneous ideas, views, problems and theories which constitute the conceptual setting for Sellars’s theses and argumentation. Second, it provides a careful and lucid section-by-section interpretive explanation of Sellars’s own principal views and claims and, crucially, undertakes to support them. And third, it offers its readers the beginnings of an engaged critical discussion of Sellars’s critique of givenness and epistemological foundationalism. What is particularly impressive about this work is its marvelous clarity. . . a highly polished, accessible text" --Jay F. Rosenberg, Taylor Grandy Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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Book SynopsisHermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, a behaviour that is intrinsic to our daily lives. As humans, we decipher the meaning of newspaper articles, books, legal matters, religious texts, political speeches, emails, and even dinner conversations every day . But how is knowledge mediated through these forms? What constitutes the process of interpretation? And how do we draw meaning from the world around us so that we might understand our position in it? In this Very Short Introduction Jens Zimmermann traces the history of hermeneutic theory, setting out its key elements, and demonstrating how they can be applied to a broad range of disciplines: theology; literature; law; and natural and social sciences. Demonstrating the longstanding and wide-ranging necessity of interpretation, Zimmermann reveals its significance in our current social and political landscape. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewThis very readable and much needed introduction breaks new ground in that it is the first to demonstrate, with insight, wit and a trove of illuminating examples, the importance of hermeneutics in all fields of knowledge. * Jean Grondin, Université de Montréal *Zimmerman offers one of the best short introductions to modern hermeneutics. The writing is at all times concise, clear and engaging. The author brilliantly evaluates the riches of this major intellectual tradition as well as revealing its ongoing creative influence on contemporary thought. * Richard Kearney, Charles Seelig Professor at Boston College and author of Anatheism and Carnal Hermeneutics. *An excellent introduction to that most characteristic of human activities, the attempt to understand. From the key figures in the development of the discipline to the application of their ideas in various fields, the reader is shown what it means to think hermeneutically and invited to do so as well. * Fr. John Behr, Dean, St Vladimir's Seminary *The Introduction clearly points to the major issues involved in hermeneutics. Jens Zimmermann writes excellently for a wide audience and the references to texting and to digital worlds gives it a contemporary feel. * Graham Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity, Christ Church Oxford, Director of Graduate Studies New York *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. What is Hermeneutics? ; 2. Hermeneutics: A brief history ; 3. Philosophical hermeneutics ; 4. Hermeneutics and theology ; 5. Hermeneutics and law ; 6. Hermeneutics and science ; 7. Hermeneutics and the humanities ; References ; Further reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisPart of a two-volume set of work containing words of all four books comprising the "Essay", this book provides marginal analyses of almost every paragraph, and explanatory footnotes which comment, elaborate and explain difficult points.Trade ReviewThis abridgment by Kenneth Winkler is the best that has ever been done. Winkler's judgment as to what must be kept and what may be dropped is unerring, and his literary skill has enabled him to fashion a text that reads smoothly. An illuminating Introduction and comprehensive glossary enhance the value of this volume for students. --Vere Chappell, University of Massachusetts, AmherstLocke's Essay is a massive, scarcely organized work that is easy for students to get lost in and difficult for teachers to lend coherence to. But Winkler's abridgment succeeds remarkably at bringing out the underlying structure of Locke's masterpiece without sacrificing any of the long and important passages that put the meat on that structure. I didn't think this could be done until I came across Winkler's abridgment. It certainly makes teaching Locke much easier, since it makes the structure of the Essay more apparent, and leaves the teacher thus freer to concentrate on the details of the text. I know of no passages from the Essay left out of this abridgment that I would prefer to use in a lower-level class. If anything, I would have made the abridgment shorter still. But to my knowledge, nobody has yet done a better job than Winkler. --Michael Rolf, University of PennsylvaniaTable of ContentsLocke's Life and Writing; The Essay concerning Human Understanding; Books I and II: Ideas and Principles; Book III: Language and Abstraction; Book IV: Knowledge; Reception and Legacy; A Chronology of John Locke; An Essay Concerning Human Understanding 1; Appendix Extracts from Locke's Letters to Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester; Explanatory Notes; Index.

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Book SynopsisA delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter' New York TimesAn ebullient, irrepressible spirit invests this book. It is erudite and sprightly'Sunday TimesFrom the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classeshere is award-winning writer Simon Winchester's brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things no need for maths, no need for map reading, no need for memorisation are we risking our ability to think? As we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?Trade Review PRAISE FOR KNOWING WHAT WE KNOW: ‘An ebullient, irrepressible spirit invests this book. It is erudite and sprightly in a way that will be familiar to anyone who has read Winchester’s wonderful histories of the Krakatoa eruption, the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary and the Atlantic (among others)’ Sunday Times ‘A book about transmitting knowledge by someone who has made his name by doing just that in the most erudite and entertaining way possible . . . a delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in history . . . as a promulgator of knowledge of every variety, perhaps the last of the famous explorers who crisscrossed the now-vanished British Empire and reported what they found to an astonished world’ New York Times ‘From schoolhouses in ancient Sumeria and Aboriginal “songlines” to GPS, Wikipedia, Google and beyond, Winchester traverses the human history of information storage and transmission in a pageant of colourful, eloquent tableaux… Don’t pigeonhole Knowing What We Know as “information science”. Rather, think of it as an intellectual autobiography: one richly stocked, ever-curious mind’s account of the multiple ways in which stored knowledge may open the road to understanding’ Financial Times ‘Winchester is a knowledge keeper for our times, and he does us all a service by writing it down’ Wall Street Journal ‘[Winchester] might be appropriately dubbed the One-Man Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge of our own era. Whatever his subject, Winchester leavens deep research and the crisp factual writing of a reporter . . . with an abundance of curious anecdotes, footnotes and digressions. His prose is always clear, but it is also invigorated with pleasingly elegant diction … Informative and entertaining throughout’ Washington Post

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Book SynopsisThis paperback edition reproduces the complete text of the Essay as prepared by professor Nidditch for The Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke. The Register of Formal Variants and the Glossary are omitted and Professor Nidditch has written a new foreword.Trade Review`has a wonderful tentative quality to it, not trying to press a point but now and again touching on a wisdom of some sort .. very rewarding.' The ScotsmanTable of ContentsFOREWORD; AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING; BOOK I; BOOK II; BOOK III; BOOK IV; INDEX

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Book SynopsisEpistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge. Without knowledge, scientific enquiry is meaningless and we can’t begin to analyse the world around us. What is knowledge? How do you know you are not dreaming? Should we trust our senses? Presuming no prior experience of philosophy, this book covers everything in the topic from scepticism and possible worlds to Kant’s transcendentalism. Clear and readable, Epistemology: A Beginner’s Guide is essential reading for students and aspiring thinkers.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A bracing book that might make you less gullible about gullibility."---Barbara Kiser, Nature"At the risk of being seen as credulous, I’d say [Mercier] makes a strong case for gullibility being a far less prevalent and important trait than we thought." * New Scientist *"[Not Born Yesterday] will be of interest to anyone who wonders how to trust what people say and do, especially in the digital, free-for-all age of unfettered, often suspect, information. The breadth and depth of research studies presented by Mercier will be especially appealing to science aficionados."---Karen Koenig, New York Journal of Books"In Not Born Yesterday, the cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier brings the conceptual reversal to a domain in desperate need of new insights: that of truth and falsehood, knowledge and ignorance."---N. J. Enfield, Times Literary Supplement"[Not Born Yesterday] marshals a convincing body of research . . . from history and sociology, from anthropology and from the psychology laboratory."---Timandra Harkness, UnHerd"[Mercier's argument] is refreshingly optimistic."---Daniel Akst, Strategy+Business"[A] thought-provoking book about the science of who we trust." * Paradigm Explorer *"At a time when large swaths seem to believe that we are hopelessly doomed because everyone else is stupid and easily misled or manipulated, Mercier’s book provides a nuanced antidote to such thinking, grounded in a careful examination of a wealth of evidence from psychology and the social sciences."---Felix Simon, Medium"[A] lucidly written introduction to the social psychology of communication and reasoning."---Shreeharsh Kelkar, Public Books

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Book SynopsisSet immediately prior to the trial and execution of Socrates in 399 BC, Theaetetus shows the great philosopher considering the nature of knowledge itself, in a debate with the geometrician Theodorus and his young follower Theaetetus. Their dialogue covers many questions, such as: is knowledge purely subjective, composed of the ever-changing flow of impressions we receive from the outside world? Is it better thought of as true belief? Or is it, as many modern philosophers argue, justified true belief, in which the belief is supported by argument or evidence? With skill and eloquence, Socrates guides the debate, drawing out the implications of these theories and subjecting them to merciless and mesmerising criticism. One of the founding works of epistemology, this profound discussion of the problem of knowledge continues to intrigue and inspire.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1Table of ContentsTheaetetus - Plato PrefaceMapTheaetetus EssayBibliography

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Book SynopsisBias seems to be everywhere, in the media, in public policy, in our personal interactions. But what is it, exactly, for a person or thing to be biased? Thomas Kelly offers a way of thinking about this question, and argues provocatively that both morality and rationality sometimes require us to be biased.Trade ReviewThe philosopher Thomas Kelly has been working in the field of epistemology for many years, and his new book on bias is an impressively careful and cool headed attempt to introduce some order into the conceptual mess. * Jessie Munton, Times Literary Supplement *Analytically rigorous yet written clearly and supported by numerous examples that illustrate the big ideas, this book will shape the study of bias for years to come and is an important resource for researchers and professionals alike. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Conceptual Fundamentals 1: Diversity, Relativity, Etc. 2: Pluralism and Priority Part II: Bias and Norms 3: The Norm-Theoretic Account of Bias 4: The Bias Blind Spot and the Biases of Introspection 5: Biased People 6: Norms of Objectivity 7: Symmetry and Bias Attributions Part III: Knowledge 8: Bias and Knowledge 9: Knowledge, Skepticism, and Reliability 10: Bias Attributions and the Epistemology of Disagreement 11: Main Themes and Conclusions Acknowledgements References

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents two closely related essays by Thomas Nagel: Gut Feelings and Moral Knowledge and Moral Reality and Moral Progress. Both essays are concerned with moral epistemology and our means of access to moral truth; both are concerned with moral realism and with the resistance to subjectivist and reductionist accounts of morality; and both are concerned with the historical development of moral knowledge. The second essay also proposes an account of the historical development of moral truth, according to which it does not share the timelessness of scientific truth. This is because moral truth must be based on reasons that are accessible to the individuals to whom they apply, and such accessibility depends on historical developments. The result is that only some advances in moral knowledge are discoveries of what has been true all along.Table of ContentsPreface 1. Gut Feelings and Moral Knowledge 2. Moral Reality and Moral Progress Index

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Book SynopsisIn The End of Epistemology As We Know It Brian Talbot explores various ways in which epistemic norms could matter, and shows how epistemic norms as standardly understood fall short on each. He argues that we can and should replace existing norms with norms that matter more. These replacement norms will be quite different from the norms standardly accepted by philosophers.In whichever way we try to explain the importance of the epistemic, it does not matter at all what we believe about most topics or why we believe it. When what we believe does matter, it is often not particularly important that our beliefs are true, but rather just that they are good enough for our purposes. When the truth is not what really matters, then no truth-connected epistemic notions, such as reliability, evidence, coherence, accuracy, or knowledge, are really normatively significant. Even when truth is genuinely important, Talbot argues, the standard epistemic norms do not properly aim at truth, because they d

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Book SynopsisThis volume brings together recent work on the nature of belief, imagination, and delusion, and seeks to get clearer on the nature of belief and imagination, the ways in which they relate to one another, and how they might be integrated into accounts of delusional belief formation.Table of ContentsList of Contributors 1: Ema Sullivan-Bissett: Introduction PART I: Lessons from Delusion on Belief and Imagination 2: Kengo Miyazono: Delusion and Self-Knowledge 3: Amy Kind: Contrast or Continuum? The Case of Belief and Imagination 4: Philip R. Corlett: Imagination, Agency, and Predictive Processing PART II: Belief and Imagination in the Wild 5: Anna Ichino: Religious Imaginings 6: Michael Omoge: On the Place of Imagination in the Architecture of the Mind 7: Neil Levy: Believing in Stories: Delusions, Superstitions, Conspiracy Theories, and Other Fairy Tales PART III: Delusional Experience 8: Garry Young: The Capgras Delusion: An Interactionist Approach Revisited 9: Philip Gerrans: Cotard Syndrome: The Experience of Inexistence 10: Douglas Lavin and Lucy O'Brien: Delusions and Everyday Life PART IV: Delusions, Belief, and Evidence 11: Sophie Archer: Why Do You Believe That? Delusion and Epistemic Reasons 12: Nicholas Furl, Max Coltheart, and Ryan McKay: o The Paradox of Delusions: Are Deluded Individuals Resistant to Evidence? 13: Paul Noordhof: Irrationality and the Failures of Consciousness Index

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Book SynopsisDo all questions have answers? How much can we know about the world? Is there such a thing as an ultimate truth?To be human is to want to know, but what we are able to observe is only a tiny portion of what''s out there. In The Island of Knowledge , physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence. In so doing, he reaches a provocative conclusion: science, the main tool we use to find answers, is fundamentally limited.These limits to our knowledge arise both from our tools of exploration and from the nature of physical reality: the speed of light, the uncertainty principle, the impossibility of seeing beyond the cosmic horizon, the incompleteness theorem, and our own limitations as an intelligent species. Recognizing limits in this way, Gleiser argues, is not a deterrent to progress or a surrendering to religion. Rather, it frees us to question the meaning and nature of the universe while affirming the central role of life and ourTable of ContentsPrologue: The Island of Knowledge PART I The Origin of the World and the Nature of the Heavens 1. The Will to Believe 2. Beyond Space and Time 3. To Be, or to Become? That is the Question 4. Lessons from Plato's Dream 5. The Transformative Power of a New Observational Tool 6. Cracking Open the Dome of Heaven 7. Science as Nature's Grand Narrative 8. The Plasticity of Space 9. The Restless Universe 10. There is No Now 11. Cosmic Blindness 12. Splitting Infinities 13. Rolling Downhill 14. Counting Universe 15. Interlude: A Promenade along the String Landscape 16. Can We Test the Multiverse Hypothesis? PART II From Alchemy to the Quantum: The Elusive Nature of Reality 17. Everything Floats in Nothingness 18. Admirable Force and Efficacy of Art and Nature 19. The Elusive Nature of Heat 20. Mysterious Light 21. Learning to Let Go 22. The Tale of the Intrepid Anthropologist 23. What Waves in the Quantum Realm? 24. Can We Know What is Real? 25. Who is Afraid of Quantum Ghosts? 26. For Whom the Bell Tolls 27. Consciousness and the Quantum World 28. Back to the Beginning PART III Mind and Meaning 29. On the Laws of Humans and the Laws of Nature 30. Incompleteness 31. Sinister Dreams of Transhuman Machines: Or, the World as Information 32. Awe and Meaning

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a minimal metaphysics for scientific practice, i.e. one that refrains from postulating any structure that is explanatorily irrelevant. Hüttemann analyses central aspects of scientific practice, such as prediction, explanation and manipulation, to consider whether and (if so) what presuppositions best account for these practices.Trade Review'A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice constitutes a highly original contribution to the burgeoning field of the metaphysics of science. Clear, well-argued and ambitious in scope, it will be required reading for those seeking cutting-edge work on such issues as laws, causation, reductionism and fundamentality.' Travis Dumsday, Concordia University of EdmontonTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Laws of nature and their modal surface structure; 2. The problem of ceteris paribus clauses; 3. Causation – conceptual groundwork; 4. Causation – application and augmentation; 5. Reductive practices; 6. Reduction and physical foundationalism; 7. Reduction and ontological monism; 8. Concluding remarks: methods and epistemic sources in metaphysics.

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Book SynopsisPerhaps the most fundamental question of epistemology asks on what grounds our knowledge of the world ultimately rests. The traditional Cartesian answer is that it rests on indubitable facts arrived at through rational insight or introspection. Coherentists reject this answer, claiming instead that knowledge arises from relations of coherence or mutual support: if our beliefs cohere, we can be sure that they are mostly true. The first part of this Element introduces the reader to the main ideas and problems of coherentism. The next part describes the ''probabilistic turn'', leading up to recent demonstrations that coherence fails to be conducive to truth. The final part reassesses the current debate about the proper definition of coherence from the standpoint of Rudolf Carnap''s methodology of explication. The upshot is a tentative and qualified defence of one of the early coherence measures.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Coherentism and the Problems of Epistemology – the Early Debate; 3. The Probabilistic Turn in Coherentist Epistemology; 4. Beyond Conceptual Analysis; 5. Explicating Coherence; 6. Conclusion; References.

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Book SynopsisPeter Strawson (19192006) was one of the leading British philosophers of his generation and an influential figure in a golden age for British philosophy between 1950 and 1970. The Bounds of Sense is one of the most influential books ever written about Kant's philosophy, and is one of the key philosophical works of the late twentieth century. Whilst probably best known for its criticism of Kant's transcendental idealism, it is also famous for the highly original manner in which Strawson defended and developed some of Kant's fundamental insights into the nature of subjectivity, experience and knowledge at a time when few philosphers were engaging with Kant's ideas. The book had a profound effect on the interpretation of Kant's philosophy when it was first published in 1966 and continues to influence discussion of Kant, the soundness of transcendental arguments, and debates in epistemology and metaphysics generally.This Routledge Classics edition incluTrade Review'Strawson offers something which is to be found in very few books on this great philosopher: a discussion which is, on the one side, sympathetic, appreciative and well informed, without ever ceasing to be critical and independent on the other.' Philosophical Books‘ … his reconstruction of Kant's central argument was not only exciting in its own day, but remains a paradigm and a challenge for anyone else attempting a reconstruction of Kant's impressive but enigmatic argument that is to be both philologically and philosophically persuasive.’ Paul Guyer, Journal of the History of Philosophy‘What is most impressive of all … is Strawson’s ability to hold small points within the setting of the overall picture, moving from one scale to the other and back again without breathlessness. He has made himself at home in the Kantian intellectual world, and has learned to move easily and naturally in it, yet familiarity has not dulled the sharpness of his perception of what has to be rejected.’ Philosophical Review‘The title itself is a roguish stroke of genius.’ MindTable of ContentsForeword to the Routledge Classics Edition – Lucy AllaisPrefacePart One: General ReviewPart Two: The Metaphysics of Experience Space and Time Objectivity and Unity Permanence and Causality Part Three: Transcendent Metaphysics The Logic of Illusion Soul Cosmos God Part Four: The Metaphysics of Transcendental IdealismPart Five: Kant’s Theory of GeometryIndex

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Book SynopsisIn July 2014 the Belgian newspaper Le Soir claimed that France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland and the United States may lose between 43 and 50 per cent of their jobs within ten to fifteen years. Across the world, integrated automation, one key result of the so-called ‘data economy’, is leading to a drastic reduction in employment in all areas - from the legal profession to truck driving, from medicine to stevedoring. In this first volume of a new series, the leading cultural theorist Bernard Stiegler advocates a radical solution to the crisis posed by automation and consumer capitalism more generally. He calls for a decoupling of the concept of ‘labour’ (meaningful, intellectual participation) from ‘employment’ (dehumanizing, banal work), with the ultimate aim of eradicating ‘employment’ altogether. By doing so, new and alternative economic models will arise, where individuals are no longer simply mined for labour, but also actively produce what they consume. Building substantially on his existing theories and engaging with a wide range of figures - from Deleuze and Foucault to Bill Gates and Alan Greenspan - Automatic Society will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities, as well as anyone concerned with the central question of the future of work.Trade Review"As Stiegler shows in this important work, there is a glaring and dangerous absence of critical thinking about automation and its effects on political and economic life. His argument is profoundly important: we must interrogate the production and maintenance of automatisms in contemporary life in order to prepare the way for what he calls a dis-automatization of society. Stiegler�s vision for the future calls for the foundation of a new human order in the midst of the Anthropocene, against the entropic violence of capitalism in its current algorithmic guise." David Bates, UC Berkeley "At once a bracing critique of algorithmic governmentality, with its accompanying specter of mass unemployment as automated labor displaces humans, and a hopeful call for reversing the ecological devastation of the Anthropocene, Stiegler lays out a blueprint for catalyzing our entry into what he calls the Neganthropocene, an era where knowledge trumps information and human well-being comes before capitalist profits. This provocative book will be of interest to anyone worried about where we are headed and eager to embrace a more positive future." N. Katherine Hayles, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Functional Stupidity, Entropy and Negentropy in the Anthropocene 1 1 The Industry of Traces and Automatized Artificial Crowds 19 2 States of Shock, States of Fact, States of Law 41 3 The Destruction of the Faculty of Dreaming 65 4 Overtaken: The Automatic Generation of Protentions 93 5 Within the Electronic Leviathan in Fact and in Law 127 6 On Available Time for the Coming Generation 157 7 Energies and Potentials in the Twenty-First Century 182 8 Above and Beyond the Market 208 Conclusion: Noetic Pollination and the Neganthropocene 226 Notes 248 Index 322

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Book SynopsisIn Language and Reality, originally published in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1964, Vilém Flusser continues his philosophical and theoretical exploration into language. He begins to postulate that language is not simply a map of the world but also the driving force for projecting worlds and enters then into a feedback with what is projected.Flusser’s thesis leads him to claim, in a seemingly missed encounter of a dialogue with Wittgenstein, that language is not limited to its ontological and epistemological aspects but rather is at the service of its aesthetic. Traversing a diverse area of research and ruminations on cybernetics to poetry, music, the visual arts, religion, and mysticism, Language and Reality can be viewed as a vital transitional work in Flusser’s emerging thought that will eventually lead to his works in the 1970s and 1980s concerning what we would later consider media theory, design, and digital culture.

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Book SynopsisAre you still the person who lived fifteen, ten or five years ago? Fifteen, ten or five minutes ago? Can you plan for your retirement if the you of thirty years hence is in some sense a different person? What and who is the real you? Does it remain constant over time and place, or is it something much more fragmented and fluid? Is it known to you, or are you as much a mystery to yourself as others are to you?With his usual wit, infectious curiosity and bracing scepticism, Julian Baggini sets out to answer these fundamental and unsettling questions. His fascinating quest draws on the history of philosophy, but also anthropology, sociology, psychology and neurology; he talks to theologians, priests, allegedly reincarnated Lamas, and delves into real-life cases of lost memory, personality disorders and personal transformation; and, candidly and engagingly, he describes his own experiences. After reading The Ego Trick, you will never see yourself in the same way again.

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Book SynopsisOur world view frames how we see things. In today's multicultural society, one'spersonal fi lter bubble' may clash with others'. Stepping back, you can becomefascinated by where people are coming from, how they know what they know. Tohelp refl ection, Mario Betti explores twelve archetypal ways of seeing the world.He clarifi es each world view and values them within the overall context of theother lenses. He outlines a path toward gaining mutual understanding betweenthe different worldviews, showing how they are connected beyond what apparentlydivides them.

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Book SynopsisLost in the raging debate over the validity of social construction is the question of what, precisely, is being constructed. Facts, gender, quarks, reality? Ian Hacking’s book explores an array of examples to reveal the deep issues underlying contentious accounts of reality—especially regarding the status of the natural sciences.Trade Review[A] spirited and eminently readable book… Hacking’s book is an admirable example of both useful debunking and thoughtful and original philosophizing—an unusual combination of good sense and technical sophistication. After he has said his say about the science wars, Hacking concludes with fascinating essays on, among other things, fashions in mental disease, the possible genesis of dolomitic rock from the activity of nanobacteria, government financing of weapons research, and the much-discussed question of whether the Hawaiians thought Captain Cook was a god. In each he makes clear the contingency of the questions scientists find themselves asking, and the endless complexity of the considerations that lead them to ask one question rather than another. The result helps the reader see how little light is shed on actual scientific controversies by either traditionalist triumphalists or postmodern unmaskers. -- Richard Rorty * The Atlantic *Ian Hacking is among the best philosophers now writing about science… He discusses psychopathology, weapons research, petrology, and South Pacific ethnography with the same skeptical intelligence he brings to quarks and electron microscopy. It is not his aim to enter a partisan controversy, still less to decide it. Instead, he clearly explains what is at stake—nothing less than the intellectual authority of modern science. -- Barry Allen * Science *Hacking’s good humour and easy style make him one of those rare contemporary philosophers I can read with pleasure. -- Steven Weinberg * Times Literary Supplement *Hacking is a Canadian philosopher of science, with important studies of probability and psychology to his name. He is no less at home in Continental philosophy and social theory than in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. His ability to leap with enviable facility from one to the other qualifies him well to bring some order into this intellectual quagmire. -- Daniel Johnson * New York Times Book Review *The Social Construction of What? explores the significance of the idea of social construction, not simply in science but also in other arenas… Hacking’s arguments are important. -- Kenan Malik * The Independent *The commonplace idea of science as the construction of models caught fire in the 1970s. It became—as Ian Hacking notes in his intelligent miscellany, The Social Construction of What?—a rallying cry for the radical optimists who relished the thought that social forms are transient and resented any attempt to freeze them for eternity on the authority of something called ‘science’… [Hacking] prefers to explore the territory that lies between the banalities. He concentrates on phenomena such as ‘child abuse’ or ‘women refugees’, wondering in what sense they existed before they were conceptualised as such and noting the ‘looping effects’ through which objective realities can be moulded by intellectual artefacts and hence by transient political and conceptual interests or even facts. * Times Higher Education Supplement *A welcome and timely arrival. Both a philosopher of science and a contributor to constructionism, Hacking speaks across the great divide. As his book title implies, he finds that the terms of this intellectual engagement vary considerably from case to case, and that the terminology of this engagement has all too often been sloppily employed on both sides. Examining an eclectic range of examples, from a nasty ethnographic spat over Captain Cook’s murder on a Hawaiian beach to the influence of weapons research on the related hard sciences, he teases out the finer points that constitute the middle ground… By meting out credit while illuminating complexities, nuances, and missteps on both sides, Hacking’s work implicitly urges a truce in the science wars. -- Kenneth Gergen * Civilization *This book offers a helpful contribution to the discussion of social constructionism and its limits, both for hard scientists who feel threatened by it and for those who practice it. This is a fun book, as Hacking takes pokes at social constructionists and clarifies what they are about. -- Matthew P. Lawson * Health, Illness, and Medicine *An interesting and invaluable frontline perspective on the causes and results of the revolution from someone close enough to it to understand it and explain it to the rest of us. Its chief merits are its linguistic clarity, intellectual scope, and self-referentiality… Communication scholars who know little about social construction will find this a very readable introduction to the major ideas being debated. -- Scott R. Olson * Journal of Communication *While informed by a sophisticated grasp of the issues, [The Social Construction of What?] is accessible, witty, and good-humored in tone. There are fascinating discussions of social constructionist claims regarding subjects are diverse as gender, Zulu nationalism, quarks, and dolomite. -- T. A. Torgerson * Choice *Hacking is one of the best philosophers of science and society of our time. Here, as usual, he argues from carefully researched examples… This is a delightful book—evenhanded, fun to read, and packed with information on everything from nuclear physics, nanobacteria, and madness to the deification of Captain Cook. -- Leslie Armour * Library Journal *[Ian Hacking] dispute[s] the claims of leftist professors, who try to fight oppression by showing that race, gender and sexuality, far from being legitimate bases for discrimination, are hardly real at all and merely the results of ‘social construction.’ In The Social Construction of What? the distinguished philosopher looks at how this kind of argument works, and particularly at cases—in the natural sciences, and with social phenomena like child abuse in which it can endanger a clear sense of what ‘reality’ is. * Publishers Weekly *In his Preface, Hacking describes this book as a kind of primer for noncombatants in the culture wars, understood as being fought between the ‘social constructionists’ who hold that knowledge is constitutively and importantly a social product, and those who see knowledge as being importantly distinct from the social realm (scientists being the exemplary instances of the latter). I especially like his discussion of the social sciences and their peculiar relation to their objects—the discussion of ‘interactive kinds’ and the ‘looping effect’ through which people can reflexively react to social science descriptions by, for example, acting out and upon such descriptions. There is an interesting line of development here concerning the difference between the social and the natural sciences, and the different senses of ‘construction’ that might be appropriate to each. The book accomplishes its chosen task in clarifying what constructionism is about and why people get excited about it. I might add that besides noncombatants in the culture wars, the book should interest and inform some of the combatants, too—it should help the anticonstructionists get clearer on the actual contours of their enemy’s position. Hacking is one of the most important philosophers working today. -- Andrew Pickering, author of Constructing Quarks and The Mangle of Practice

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Provides] an excellent overview of Einstein’s major discoveries, from his early work on quantum theory to general relativity, the new law of gravity that overturned Newton. It is a welcome addition to any collection of books on modern physics."---Marcia Bartusiak, Wall Street Journal"In The Einsteinian Revolution, two eminent experts on Einstein’s life and his theory of relativity . . . offer an original and penetrating analysis of Einstein’s revolutionary contributions to physics and our view of the physical world. . . . The Einsteinian Revolution is an important and thought-provoking contribution to the scholarly literature on Einstein and his astounding scientific creativity between 1905 and 1925. Gutfreund and Renn might not have given the final answer as to why Einstein, of all people, revolutionized physics in the way that he did. But they argue in fascinating detail that, to understand his genius, one must take into account not just the earlier history of physics but also the history of knowledge more broadly.” – Helge Kragh, Nature"---Helge Kragh, Nature

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Book SynopsisCan science, steeped in Western, masculine, bourgeois endeavors, nevertheless be used for emancipatory ends? In this major contribution to the debate over the role gender plays in the scientific enterprise, Sandra Harding pursues that question...Trade Review"Provocative and often persuasive, this examination of trends in feminine critiques of science presents a useful, comprehensive account of a subject claiming increasing attention among philosophers, historians of science, and feminine theorists."—E.C. Patterson, Albertus Magnus College, Choice, 1986"Offers a plentiful feast of sticky problems, embarrassing questions, and nagging doubts about current practices in both history and philosophy of science that will not go away by themselves."—Elisabeth A. Lloyd, Isis, Vol. 79, 1988"This is the book many scholars in feminist theory and the philosophical and historical studies of science have been waiting for. It is ambitious, sophisticated, and subtle: the best book yet written in feminist approaches to philosophy and the theories of knowledge."—Donna J. Harraway, Department of the History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz

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Book SynopsisFrom Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create ways of being, as individuals and as a society. Here, he demonstrates that language is at the center of this generative process. Language does not merely describe; it constitutes meaning, and the shared practice of speech shapes human experience.Trade ReviewCharacteristically, [Taylor’s] latest book transgresses the boundaries of usually distinct philosophical topics, incorporating disciplines outside philosophy: anthropology, sociology and developmental psychology. Philosophy of language becomes the doorway to metaphysics, politics and ethics, and to working out the nature of modernity and what it has made us. -- Jane O’Grady * Times Higher Education *Taylor moves well beyond theory, looking at the ‘shape, scope and uses of language.’ We find out a great deal about how language is learned, semantic invention, and how words fit into the broader palette of art, ritual, gesture and symbol. -- Jonathan Wright * Catholic Herald *Taylor’s prolific philosophical output is justly celebrated for the rich historical sweep of its learning…The Language Animal…is no exception…By the end we have been given a powerful and often uplifting vision of what it is to be truly human. -- John Cottingham * The Tablet *There is no other book that has presented a critique of conventional philosophy of language in these terms and constructed an alternative to it in anything like this way. -- Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia UniversityTaylor is one of the handful of most important thinkers of our era. The line of thinking he develops in The Language Animal is basic to his whole work since Explanation of Behaviour. Many readers will grasp the importance of a constitutive view of language, and for them this will be a landmark book. -- Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political ScienceJust as Humboldt believed that ‘possessing a language is to be continuously involved in trying to extend its powers of articulation,’ Charles Taylor’s new book, The Language Animal, demonstrates how the very study of language over time embodies the evolving human effort to extend our understanding—not only of language, but of the very self language helps to describe, propel, and transcend. It is a deeply thoughtful, historically enriching, and ultimately luminous book. -- Maryanne Wolf, Tufts UniversityTrue to its author’s background in philosophy and political thought, The Language Animal is less a scientific, by-the-facts book than a reflective and often poetic account of how language shapes human experience. -- Charisma Lee * LSE Review of Books *Taylor’s argument is salutary and powerful. His erudition is impressive, and the rich diet of examples he assembles poses a serious challenge to facile reductionist accounts of language and of human nature. -- Edward Feser * National Review *[Taylor’s] ultimate objective in his latest book, The Language Animal, is to demonstrate how we can all live in a more tolerant ‘flexible’ (his word) world—if we can learn how to make the most of the resources, above all the resources for communication, we all share. This is a continuation of the ideas he has been working on throughout his astonishingly long and productive career. Taylor writes in a compelling, congenial way that enables him to encompass seeming contradictions. -- Anthony Pagden * World Post *

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Book SynopsisIf contemporary culture were a school, with all the tasks and expectations meted out by modern life as its curriculum, would anyone graduate? In the spirit of a sympathetic teacher, Robert Kegan guides us through this tricky curriculum, assessing the fit between its complex demands and our mental capacities.Trade ReviewA stimulating tour through the modern mind in society… In Over Our Heads is full of insight; it reflects broad learning and enormous intellectual effort. -- David Mehegan * Boston Sunday Globe *[This book] is intellectually exciting and far-reaching in its implications… Kegan’s writing has much to offer developmental psychology, which suffers from a dearth of theoretical frameworks in the area of adult development… This book invites readers to work hard but rewards them greatly. There are foundation-shaking theoretical and research challenges here for mainstream psychology, especially behavioral and social learning approaches that focus on skill training and cumulative (quantitative) change… I thoroughly recommend this exciting book… It has the potential to transform our texts on life span development. It is a book that opens up whole new vistas for developmental researchers, as well as psychologists whose practice includes adult clients. -- Marie R. Joyce * Contemporary Psychology *A dazzling intellectual tour… In Over Our Heads provides us with entirely fresh perspectives on a number of cultural controversies—the ‘abstinence vs. safe sex’ debate, the diversity movement, communication across genders, the meaning of postmodernism. * Health and Recovery *Table of ContentsPrologue I. The Mental Demand of Adolescence 1. The Hidden Curriculum of Youth: "Whaddaya Want from Me?" 2. Coaching the Curriculum: A Bridge Must Be Well Anchored on Either Side II. The Mental Demand of Private Life: Parenting and Partnering 3. Parenting: Minding Our Children 4. Partnering: Love and Consciousness III. The Mental Demand of Public Life: Work and Self-Expansion 5. Working: On Seeking to Hire the Self-Employed 6. Dealing with Difference: Communication between the Sexes/Communication between the Theories 7. Healing: The Undiscussed Demands of Psychotherapy 8. Learning: "The Teacher Wants Us to Be Self-Directing" IV. The Mental Demand of Postmodern Life 9. Conflict, Leadership, and Knowledge Creation 10. On Being Good Company for the Wrong Journey Epilogue Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Aiming to extract life lessons from the philosophy of Spinoza, this vibrant study focusses on the concept of ‘homo liber,’ or the free person, a supremely rational figure continually striving for power and virtue. . . . Spinoza’s work serves as a hopeful, timely statement of what the truth-seeking individual can accomplish." * New Yorker *"As an accessible introduction to the complex thought of Spinoza, it is a success."---Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal"If you want to become a better person, you ought to study the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. That at least is the message of Steven Nadler’s delightful new book."---Jonathan Rée, Literary Review"A helpful explication of [Spinoza’s] ideas about ethics, the afterlife, and human nature." * Kirkus Reviews *"If you want the clearest and most sympathetic introduction as exists to Spinoza’s ideas . . . then Nadler’s your man. This, his latest book, is a must-read for our present, troubled times."---David Conway, Jewish Chronicle

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Book SynopsisIn Method in Theology, Vol. 14, Lonergan's intention was to provide a set of methods that would guide a collaborative community in the ongoing construction of a theology that would move from recovery of the data through resolution of conflicts to contemporary formulations and applications.Table of ContentsPart 1: Background The Human Good Meaning Religion Functional Specialties Part Two: Foreground Interpretation History History and Historians Dialectic Foundations Doctrines Systematics Communications The Church and the Churches

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Book SynopsisHow do we know what we think we know? The answer is evidence, but evidence is no simple thing. What counts as evidence in a scientific context or private dispute may not stand up in court. Frederick Schauer combines perspectives from law, statistics, psychology, and philosophy to assess the nature of evidence in the era of “fake news.”Trade ReviewSchauer displays a level of intellectual honesty one rarely encounters these days…This is delightful stuff, all the more so coming from an author whose political sympathies clearly lie far from the Trump family. Chapters on the state of criminology and the nature of lying are similarly engaging. -- Barton Swaim * Wall Street Journal *[Schauer’s] essential argument is that in assessing evidence, we need, first of all, to recognize that evidence comes in degrees (from weak to strong, from extraneous to relevant) and that probability, the likelihood that the evidence or testimony is accurate, matters…[He] has fascinating things to say about the reliability of eyewitnesses, hearsay and lie detectors, the efficacy of honor codes and courtroom oath taking, and the trustworthiness of letters of recommendation. -- Steven Mintz * Inside Higher Education *I would make Proof one of a handful of books that all incoming law students should read…Essential and timely. -- Emily R. D. Murphy * Law and Society Review *Schauer is inviting us to distrust ourselves, to look for an external ground in our evidence assessments, one that reaches out for empirical evidence and verifiable inferences, instead of feelings, senses, perception, and intuition…The elucidation of this value (of distrusting ourselves) is a great achievement…[A] fascinating book. -- Thomas Bustamante * Jotwell *At a time when the concept of truth itself is in trouble, this lively and accessible account provides vivid and deep analysis of the practices addressing what is reliably true in law, science, history, and ordinary life. Schauer's The Proof integrates knowledge of legal doctrine, social science studies, philosophy, and history and offers both timely and enduring insights. -- Martha Minow, former Dean of Harvard Law School and author of When Should Law Forgive?The Proof is an engaging tour of a range of knotty problems relating to evidence and reasoned inference. Fred Schauer shares a wealth of insights he has developed over several decades of teaching and writing about evidence law and the nature of proof. A pleasure to read. -- David Alan Sklansky, author of A Pattern of ViolenceA thoroughly enjoyable and accessible book on how the insights of evidence law can help all of us make better decisions in our everyday lives. A much-needed guide in a confusing world awash in information and misinformation. The Proof is sure to become a classic! -- Edward K. Cheng, Vanderbilt Law SchoolWith his uncanny ability to blend erudition and accessibility, Fred Schauer unpacks how to think about proof—what people tell us, what we see, what the experts say—in everyday life. An extraordinarily readable book with breathtaking range and clarity, The Proof is an indispensable guide for those who seek to thoughtfully navigate the world. I cannot recommend it highly enough. -- Kimberly Kessler Ferzan, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law SchoolIf you care about evidence, the search for the truth, about what we know and how we know it, you have a lot to learn from this timely and masterful book. -- Lee C. Bollinger, President and Seth Low Professor of the University, Columbia UniversityAssessing evidence: that is the essence of judgment. Schauer’s The Proof imparts the disturbing lesson that we, be we individuals or organizations, are poor judges. Fortunately, this book wields tools from law, psychology, and statistics, plus an array of historic examples and contemporary accounts, to show how we can dramatically improve as assessors. Even better, it does so with wit. -- Richard Zeckhauser, Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisThis book identifies eight key mechanisms that can transform a set of ideas into a psychological flytrap. The author suggests that, like the black holes of outer space, from which nothing, not even light, can escape, our contemporary cultural landscape contains numerous intellectual black-holes-belief systems constructed in such a way that unwary passers-by can similarly find themselves drawn in. While such self-sealing bubbles of belief will most easily trap the gullible or poorly educated, even the most intelligent and educated of us are potentially vulnerable. Some of the world's greatest thinkers have fallen in, never to escape. This witty, insightful critique will help immunize readers against the wiles of cultists, religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, promoters of flaky alternative medicines, and others by clearly setting out the tricks of the trade by which such insidious belief systems are created and maintained.Trade Review""Offers flashes of wit and insight.” —Times Higher Education “I would like to see this book read by college freshmen, and certainly anybody running for public office. The witty, insightful, and often amusing arguments might help to immunize readers against religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, and new agers by understanding their stocks in trade….” —San Francisco Book Review “

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Book SynopsisTwo lectures in Bologna: on 31 March 2011 at the International Conference to Mark the Centenary of Rudolf Steiner's Lecture in Bologna, and on 8 April 1911 at the Fourth International Philosophy Congress A special conference took place in Bologna in Spring 2011, marking the hundredth anniversary of a unique lecture Rudolf Steiner delivered to a philosophically-trained audience in the same city. In his key exposition, Steiner had given a concise description of the spiritual-scientific theory of knowledge as well as a brief outline of the anthroposophical path of schooling. In his contribution to the 2011 congress, Sergei O. Prokofieff tackles two principal aspects. On the one hand, he describes how Steiner's Bologna lecture contained the essential foundations for a new 'science of the human ego'. On the other hand, Prokofieff states that Rudolf Steiner was the first person to transform this same theory into a practical path of knowledge, following it to its very conclusion. Thus, the words of Rudolf Steiner's lecture were based entirely on personal experience. Together with a transcript of Rudolf Steiner's full Bologna lecture, Sergei O. Prokofieff's own lecture is reproduced here in an expanded version. In addition, this volume features Rudolf Steiner's important 'summaries of essential points', in which he develops and connects some of his key thoughts with further aspects of anthroposophy, especially in relation to their Christological foundations.Table of ContentsForeword by Sergei O. Prokofieff Part I: Sergei O. Prokofieff RUDOLF STEINER'S PATH OF INITIATION AND THE MYSTERY OF THE EGO Lecture held in Bologna on 31 March 2011 during the International Conference to mark the Centenary of Rudolf Steiner's Lecture in Bologna Part II: Rudolf Steiner THE FOUNDATIONS OF ANTHROPOSOPHICAL METHODOLOGY 1. Lecture held in Bologna on 8 April 1911 at the Fourth International Philosophy Conference The Psychological Foundations of Anthroposophy and its Standpoint in Relation to the Theory of Knowledge A Spiritual-Scientific Mode of Perception Based upon Potential Psychological Facts The Experiences of the Spiritual Researcher and the Theory of Knowledge 2. Two Summaries of Essential Points from the Lecture in Bologna Theosophy and Modern Cultural Life A Statement about Theosophy at the Fourth International Philosophy Conference Notes Bibliography

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