Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge Books

Book SynopsisDesigned for readers who have had little or no exposure to contemporary theory of knowledge, Reading Epistemology brings together twelve important and influential writings on the subject. Presents twelve influential pieces of writing representing two contrasting views on each of six core topics in epistemology. Each chapter contains an introduction to the topic, introductions to the authors, extensive commentaries on the texts, questions for debate and an annotated bibliography. Includes writings from Robert Nozick, Ernest Sosa, Laurence BonJour, and Fred Dretske. Encourages readers to engage with the texts and to think for themselves. Trade Review"Sven Bernecker's book is an excellent one for students. The selected passages are very well chosen, and the commentaries are explanatory, acute, interesting and well informed. By not being over detailed or dogmatic, they will serve to stimulate critical thought, which is very much the book's aim." Paul Snowdon, University College London "Bernecker goes beyond the traditional anthology by combining well-chosen primary sources with carefully constructed commentary on each source … which not only help the reader make sense of complex arguments and theses, but which also place the primary sources in the context of the debates and controversies from which they arise. Anyone who teaches epistemology will want to take a close look at this text." Saul Traiger, Occidental CollegeTable of ContentsPreface viii Sources and Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Defining Knowledge 4 Introduction to the Problem 4 Introduction to Pollock 7 John L. Pollock, ‘The Gettier Problem’ 8 Commentary on Pollock 11 Introduction to Nozick 14 Robert Nozick, ‘Conditions for Knowledge’ 15 Commentary on Nozick 21 2 Justification and Truth 27 Introduction to the Problem 27 Introduction to Goldman 30 Alvin I. Goldman, ‘What is Justified Belief ?’ 31 Commentary on Goldman 41 Introduction to Foley 44 Richard Foley, ‘What’s Wrong with Reliabilism?’ 44 Commentary on Foley 53 3 Duties and Virtues 57 Introduction to the Problem 57 Introduction to Steup 60 Matthias Steup, ‘A Defense of Internalism’ 60 Commentary on Steup 75 Introduction to Sosa 80 Ernest Sosa, ‘Reliabilism and Intellectual Virtue’ 80 Commentary on Sosa 89 4 Knowledge by Hearsay 93 Introduction to the Problem 93 Introduction to Fricker 95 Elizabeth Fricker, ‘Against Gullibility’ 95 Commentary on Fricker 107 Introduction to Burge 109 Tyler Burge, ‘Content Preservation’ 110 Commentary on Burge 119 5 Foundations or Coherence? 122 Introduction to the Problem 122 Introduction to Alston 124 William P. Alston, ‘Two Types of Foundationalism’ 125 Commentary on Alston 135 Introduction to BonJour 139 Laurence BonJour, ‘The Coherence Theory of Empirical Knowledge’ 139 Commentary on BonJour 150 6 Scepticism in Context 156 Introduction to the Problem 156 Introduction to Dretske 159 Fred Dretske, ‘The Pragmatic Dimension of Knowledge’ 159 Commentary on Dretske 169 Introduction to Williams 173 Michael Williams, ‘Realism and Scepticism’ 174 Commentary on Williams 182 Essay/Examination Questions 186 Further Reading 188 Index 194

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Book SynopsisRush Rhees, a close friend of Wittgenstein and a major interpreter of his work, shows how Wittgenstein''s On Certainty concerns logic, language, and reality topics that occupied Wittgenstein since early in his career. Authoritative interpretation of Wittgenstein''s last great work, On Certainty, by one of his closest friends. Debunks misconceptions about Wittgenstein''s On Certainty and shows that it is an essay on logic. Exposes the continuity in Wittgenstein''s thought, and the radical character of his conclusions. Contains a substantial and illuminating afterword discussing current scholarship surrounding On Certainty, and its relationship to Rhees''s work on this subject. Trade Review"This book contains illuminating remarks and a novel perspective on an important and widely discussed classic. And it has a special authority, being the work of one of the author’s best students and closest friends." William Brenner, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia "This book contains two remarkable and original contributions by Rush Rhees and D. Z. Phillips to the burgeoning scholarship on Wittgenstein’s On Certainty. I recommend it strongly." Avrum Stroll, University of California, San DiegoTable of ContentsPreface vii PART I THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND TO ON CERTAINTY 1 1 On Certainty: A New Topic? 3 2 Saying and Describing 6 3 Concept-Formation 11 4 ‘Seeing’ and ‘Thinking’ 16 5 Thought and Language 27 6 Picturing Reality 34 7 What Makes Language Language? 40 8 The Logical and the Empirical 44 9 On Certainty: A Work in Logic 48 PART II DISCUSSIONS OF ON CERTAINTY 53 10 Two Conversations with Wittgenstein on Moore 55 11 Preface to On Certainty 61 12 On Certainty’s Main Theme 67 13 Induction 73 14 Wittgenstein’s Propositions and Foundations 78 15 Language as Emerging from Instinctive Behaviour 93 16 Words and Things 106 17 Not Worth Mentioning? 111 18 Certainty and Madness 118 PREFACE Appendix 1: Comparisons Between On Certainty and Wittgenstein’s Earlier Work 125 Appendix 2: Some Passages Relating to Doubt and Certainty in On Certainty 131 Afterword: Rhees on Reading On Certainty 133 D. Z. Phillips Notes 183 Index 192

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Book SynopsisA Brief History of the Soul provides a clear and concise history of the soul, from Plato to cutting-edge contemporary work in philosophy of mind.Trade Review“Although they may well have their own agenda, Goetz and Taliaferro not only provide an extremely useful chronological account of how the concept of the soul developed, they also illuminate the questions it was meant to solve, and the way these are not yet satisfactorily laid to rest.” (Times Higher Education Supplement, 5 July 2012) "This is a courageous book: it takes up and defends a position to which the current intellectual climate it generally hostile, namely that human beings are embodied souls. The book's very title throws down a challenge to the philosophical establishment. Nonetheless, even the most resolute enemies of dualism will welcome Stuart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro's overview of historical and contemporary positions on the existence and nature of the soul." (Anthony Kenny, The Times Literary Supplement, December 16, 2011). "So the book remains firmly within orthodox philosophy and science, although within these limits it can be highly recommended." (Network Review, 1 June 2011) "All this, as well as being useful in its own right, brings us properly prepared for a serious discussion and robust response to the challenges posted to the soul by the supposed conclusions of modern science. . . An excellent read." (New Directions, 1 July 2011) Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 The Soul in Greek Thought 6 2 The Soul in Medieval Christian Thought 30 3 The Soul in Continental Thought 65 4 The Soul in Locke, Butler, Reid, Hume, and Kant 105 5 The Problem of Soul–Body Causal Interaction 131 6 The Soul and Contemporary Science 152 7 Contemporary Challenges to the Soul 182 8 Thoughts on the Future of the Soul 202 Bibliography 216 Index 225

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Book SynopsisWhat can we know and what should we believe about today''s world? What to Believe Now: Applying Epistemology to Contemporary Issues applies the concerns and techniques of epistemology to a wide variety of contemporary issues. Questions about what we can know-and what we should believe-are first addressed through an explicit consideration of the practicalities of working these issues out at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Coady calls for an ''applied turn'' in epistemology, a process he likens to the applied turn that transformed the study of ethics in the early 1970s. Subjects dealt with include: Experts-how can we recognize them? And when should we trust them? Rumors-should they ever be believed? And can they, in fact, be a source of knowledge? Conspiracy theories-when, if ever, should they be believed, and can they be known to be true? The blogosphere-how does it compare with traditional media as a source of knoTrade Review“With the possible exception of some of the introductory material, however, everything in What To Believe Now is accessible without a background in epistemology. Since it addresses topics of considerable importance, it should command, if not a mass audience, then one that reaches well outside the narrow confines of academic philosophy. Those particularly likely to find it useful include political theorists, students of social networks, and perhaps some policy makers.” (Danube Law & Economics Review, 1 December 2014) “All in all, an intelligent, accessible, and provocative book that will encourage epistemologists to examine the real-world implications of their theories.” (Philosophy in Review, 1 October 2014) “Overall, Coady’s book is a well-organised and well-conceived piece of philosophy that constitutes a powerful case for the legitimacy of applying epistemology to contemporary issues.” (Journal of Applied Philosophy, 22 October 2013) “This book implements an excellent idea. The idea is that applied epistemology is worth pursuing. Applied epistemology, like applied ethics, employs philosophical resources toward solving real-world problems. What To Believe Now defends provocative views… If the book encourages further work in applied epistemology, then it will have accomplished considerable good.” (Earl Conee, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 1 January 2013) “Undoubtedly, this book will interest contemporary epistemologists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.” (Choice, 1 November 2012) “Since it addresses topics of considerable importance, it should command, if not a mass audience, then one that reaches well outside the narrow confines of academic philosophy. Those particularly likely to find it useful include political theorists, students of social networks, and perhaps some policy makers.” (Danny Yee's Book Reviews, 2012) Table of ContentsPreface ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Experts and the Laity 27 3 Epistemic Democracy 59 4 Rumors and Rumor-Mongers 86 5 Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Theorists 110 6 The Blogosphere and the Conventional Media 138 7 Conclusion 169 Postscript: Government Surveillance and Privacy 175 References 188 Index 197

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Book SynopsisRichard Capobianco makes the case that the core matter of Heidegger's lifetime of thought was Being as the temporal emergence of all beings and things.Trade Review‘This book will prove indispensable to anybody working within Heidegger studies, especially those interested in his work on poetry, language, and Heraclitus.’ -- S. Montgomery Ewegen * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews January 2015 *‘Capobianco immerses his readers in a dexterous set of considerations which engage an impressively vast array of texts spanning Heidegger’s corpus… He provides a valuable resource for scholars and others interested in further pursuing Heidegger.’ -- Katherine Davis * Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual vol 8:2018 *"What stands out as Capobianco’s truly unique contribution to the literature of Heidegger is how he carefully unfolds the subtle differences in Heidegger’s many names for Being…In the end, the reader is left with a renewed appreciation not only for the continued relevance of Heidegger’s work, but for the beauty and necessity of thought itself." -- Timothy Jussuame * Philosophy in Review *

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Book SynopsisAmong his generation of intellectuals, the eighteenth-century German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder is recognized both for his innovative philosophy of language and history and for his passionate criticism of racism, colonialism, and imperialism. A student of Immanuel Kant, Herder challenged the idea that anyone – even the philosophers of the Enlightenment – could have a monopoly on truth.In Herder: Aesthetics against Imperialism, John K. Noyes plumbs the connections between Herder’s anti-imperialism, often acknowledged but rarely explored in depth, and his epistemological investigations. Noyes argues that Herder’s anti-rationalist epistemology, his rejection of universal conceptions of truth, knowledge, and justice, constitutes the first attempt to establish not just a moral but an epistemological foundation for anti-imperialism. Engaging with the work of postcolonial theorists such Dipesh Chakrabarty and Gayatri Spivak, this book is a vTrade Review‘A profound source of philosophical interpretation, which is very close to the source, in which Herder’s significance for the current discourse of global history and anti-imperialism is of surprising actuality.’ -- Michael Maurer * H-Soz-u-Kult March 2017 *‘While displaying a remarkable suppleness, Noyes strikes a cogent, yet nuanced balance between probing, sensitive readings of Herder’s and his Enlightenment contemporaries’ texts on the one hand, and, on the other, deliberative, thought-provoking critical commentary on current Herder scholarship.’ -- David R. Greeves * Arcadia vol 52:03:2017 *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Postcolonial Theory and Herder's Anti-Imperialism Chapter 1: From Epistemology to Aesthetics Chapter 2: From Organic Life to the Politics of Interpretation Chapter 3: From Human Restlessness to the Politics of Difference Chapter 4: From the Location of Language to the Multiplicity of Reason Chapter 5: From Human Diversity to the Politics of Natural Development Chapter 6: The Aesthetics of Revolution and the Critique of Imperialism Conclusion: Herder, Postcolonialism, and the Antinomy of Universal Reason

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Book SynopsisThis original and innovative book is an exploration of one of the key mysteries of the mind, the question of consciousness. Conducted through a one month course of both practical and entertaining ''thought experiments'', these stimulating mind-games are used as a vehicle for investigating the complexities of the way the mind works. By turns, fun, eye-opening and intriguing approach to thinking about thinking, which contains inventive and engaging ''thought experiments'' for the general reader Includes specially drawn illustrations by the French avant-garde artist, Judit Reunites the social science disciplines of psychology, sociology and political theory with the traditional concerns of philosophy Trade Review"A great book and well worth the self-indulgence, one day at a time." (Metapsychology, 27 December 2011) "I would recommend its purchase for the general reader who is already interested in thinking, philosophy and is willing to invest time and thought into getting the most out of the book. For the more academic professional it may seem too light hearted." (Encephalitis Society, 1 April 2011) "The upshot is that readers of this book who already have a philosophical bent will enjoy engaging with it at a discursive level while the more general reader will gain a deeper sense of the diversity and quirkiness, the subtleties and complexities, of that infinite inner world which is the mind." (Suite101.com, November 2010) "Cohen is an author who specialises in popular books on philosophy, social science and politics and, essentially, this new one is an introduction to thinking about thinking. It blends psychological and social studies with philosophical theory for the first time, eschewing technical jargon and using easily understood scenarios to demonstrate the theme." (www.mysteriousplanet.net, November 2010) "This book is very much in that vein of bringing philosophy to the masses and encouraging people to think." (The Bookbag, November 2010) "Readers of this book who already have a philosophical bent will enjoy engaging with it at a discursive level while the more general reader will gain a deeper sense of the diversity and quirkiness, the subtleties and complexities, of that infinite inner world which is the mind." (www.suite101.com, November 2010)Table of ContentsAcknowledgements. Forward! How To Use This Book. Week 1: Influencing the Reptile Mind. Day 1. Words. Task: Spend all day trying only to think for yourself. Day 2. Identifying the Reptile. Task: Identify, and talk to, the reptile in your head. Day 3. The Fallacy of the Lonely Fact. Task:Try testing someone’s sense of randomness. Offer them a little bet. Day 4. The Immortals. Task: Write (or at least start) a book. Day 5. My Three Favourite Animals. Task: Complete an innocuouslooking survey about animals.. Day 6. The Prison of the Self. Task: Attempt to escape …. Day 7. Trappism. Task: Don’t talk to anyone. Week 2: Observing the Development of Little Minds. Day 8. Dotty Experiments on Teddies. Task: Get Piaget and Teddy to try to unconserve the numbers. Day 9. (a.m.) The Cow in the Field-that-gets-built-on. Task: Make a board game for children. (p.m.) The Mountains of Egocentricity. Task: Construct a device to measure egocentricity. (evening) Behave Yourself!. Task: Apply behaviourist principles to those around you. Day 10. The Dissonance of the $1 Volunteers. Task: Make the children (or employees, or partners) do some boring repetitive activities. Day 11. Investigating Memory. Task: Memory test: how many of the words can you remember?. Day 12. Jargon for Dummies. Task: Manage someone. Day 13. Be Lucky!. Task: Find out how unlucky you are. Day 14. This Is Not a Self-help Book. Task: Boil down a self-help book. Week 3: Experiments in Practical Philosophy. Day 15. The Upside-down Goggles. Task: Make – and wear – some special goggles. Day 16. Fire-walking and Cold Baths. Task: Prepare a bed of red-hot coals or wood embers. Day 17. R-pentomino. Task: Make some of your very own microbes. Day 18. (a.m.) Proprioception (Scratching Noses Test). Task: Fool your senses into believing your nose is several feet long. (p.m.) Hear the McGurk Effect. Task: Fool your senses into hearing things that aren’t there …. Day 19. (a.m) Go for a Long Walk on the Much Too Long Coastal Path. Task: Measure it in centimetres. (p.m.) Make a Bed of Nails. Task: Lie on it overnight. Day 20. Now Getting Really Rather Dangerous …. Task: Look at something boring on the Internet. Day 21. Doodle. Task: Draw something. Week 4: Miscellaneous Philosophical Investigations. Day 22. (a.m.) Molyneux’s Problem. Task: No more dangerous tasks. Pause to conceptualise. (p.m.) Mary’s Room. Test 3: Why is this one here?. Day 23. Unable To See Change. Task: Check who you are living with is the same person as yesterday. Day 24. Cascade Theory. Task: Chair (or rather rig) a discussion. Day 25. Explain Yourself!. Task: Try to predict your day. Day 26. Investigating Un-Reason and Argument. Task: Play on ambiguity. Day 27. Subliminal Messages. Task: Become aware of hidden messages all around you. Day 28. (a.m.) The Power of Prayer. Task: Pray a little. (p.m.) Pray for Good Crops. Task: Pray a little bit harder. Day 29. The Horror and the Beauty. Or Vice Versa. Task: Have a vision – or at least a dream. Day 30. Strange Things. Task: Conduct some telepathy. Day 31. Manipulating Minds down on the Farm. Task: Read between the lines …. Debriefing. Week 1: Influencing the Reptile Mind. Day 1. Words. Day 2. Identifying the Reptile. Day 3. The Fallacy of the Lonely Fact. Day 4. The Immortals. Day 5. My Three Favourite Animals. Day 6. The Prison of the Self. Day 7. Trappism. Week 2: Observing the Development of Little Minds. Day 8. Dotty Experiments on Teddies. Day 9. (a.m.) The Cow in the Field-that-gets-built-on. (p.m.) The Mountains of Egocentricity. (evening) Behave Yourself!. Day 10. The Dissonance of the $1 Volunteers. Day 11. Investigating Memory. Day 12. Jargon for Dummies. Day 13. Be Lucky!. Day 14. This Is Not a Self-help Book. Week 3: Experiments in Practical Philosophy Day 15. The Upside-down Goggles. Day 16. Fire-walking and Cold Baths. Day 17. R-pentomino. Day 18. (a.m.) Proprioception (Scratching Noses Test). (p.m.) Hear the McGurk Effect. Day 19. (a.m.) Go for a Long Walk on the Much Too Long Coastal Path. (p.m.) Make a Bed of Nails. Day 20. Now Getting Really Rather Dangerous …. Day 21. Doodle. Week 4: Miscellaneous Philosophical Investigations. Day 22. (a.m.) Molyneux’s Problem. (p.m.) Mary’s Room. Day 23. Unable To See Change. Day 24. Cascade Theory. Day 25. Explain Yourself!. Day 26. Investigating Un-Reason and Argument. Day 27. Subliminal Messages. Day 28. (a.m.) The Power of Prayer. (p.m.) Pray for Good Crops. Day 29. The Horror and the Beauty Or Vice Versa. Day 30. Strange Things. Day 31. Manipulating Minds down on the Farm. Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading. Index.

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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 SynopsisThe author has taken an important subject, one which has pervaded the thinking of scientists, philosophers, and historians, and with impeccable scholarship and great clarity has concerned himself with a specific aspect of it: the way in which the determination of how the unity of the sciences is to be conceived presented itself to philosophers as a specifically philosophical or logical problem. The study is not, therefore, an essay in the history of ideas showing the idea of unity at work in many cultural contexts, or in the history of the classification fo the sciences; nor does it discuss philosophers who suppose a unity but do not discuss it. Rather it is an exposition of what is directly said on the subject of unity by a number of philosphers who view it in their different ways as a problem for solving. Those chosen for discussion belong to the classical period of modern philosophy, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and chapters take up the contributions of Bacon, Descartes

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Book SynopsisBeyond Description brings anthropologists and other social scientists together to examine the problem of explanation. What is an explanation? What can it add? What makes it authoritative, clarifying, or misleading? Whom does it serve and how is it produced? These questions lie at the heart of recent public crises of confidence in expertise, political representation, and classic liberal visions of whom we can rely on for true and trustworthy accounts. In a world beset by events and processes that seem to defy expert predictions of their impossibility, and in which post-hoc accounts can often feel more like rationalizations than explanations, competing voices vie for public presence and seek to silence one another. Anthropology and the social sciences face such questions too, making contemporary explanatory practice both an empirical and a reflexive challenge. By combining ethnographic studies of practices of explanation in a range of contemporary political

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Book SynopsisBeyond Description brings anthropologists and other social scientists together to examine the problem of explanation. What is "an explanation?" What can it add? What makes it authoritative, clarifying, or misleading? Whom does it serve and how is it produced? These questions lie at the heart of recent public crises of confidence in expertise, political representation, and classic liberal visions of whom we can rely on for true and trustworthy accounts. In a world beset by events and processes that seem to defy expert predictions of their impossibility, and in which post-hoc accounts can often feel more like rationalizations than explanations, competing voices vie for public presence and seek to silence one another. Anthropology and the social sciences face such questions too, making contemporary explanatory practice both an empirical and a reflexive challenge. By combining ethnographic studies of practices of explanation in a range of contemporary political, medical, artistic, religious, and bureaucratic settings, the essays in Beyond Description offer critical examinations of changing norms and forms of explanation in the world and within anthropology itself.

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Book SynopsisEighty years ago, Ettore Majorana, a brilliant student of Enrico Fermi, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while going by ship from Palermo to Naples. How is it possible that the most talented physicist of his generation vanished without leaving a trace? It has long been speculated that Majorana decided to abandon physics, disappearing because he had precociously realized that nuclear fission would inevitably lead to the atomic bomb. This book advances a different hypothesis. Through a careful analysis of Majorana's article "The Value of Statistical Laws in Physics and Social Sciences," which shows how in quantum physics reality is dissolved into probability, and in dialogue with Simone Weil's considerations on the topic, Giorgio Agamben suggests that, by disappearing into thin air, Majorana turned his very person into an exemplary cipher of the status of the real in our probabilistic universe. In so doing, the physicist posed a question to science that is still awaiting an answer: What is Real?

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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 SynopsisWhen we look back from the vantage point of the 21st century and ask ourselves what the previous century was all about, what do we see? Our first inclination is to focus on historical events: the 20th century was the age of two devastating world wars, of totalitarian regimes and terrible atrocities like the Holocaust – “the age of extremes,” to use Hobsbawm’s famous phrase. But in this new book, the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk argues that we will never understand the 20th century if we focus on events and ideologies. Rather, in his view, the predominant motif of the 20th century is what Badiou called a passion for the real, which manifests itself as the will to actualize the truth directly in the here and now. Drawing on his Spheres trilogy, Sloterdijk interprets the actualization of the real in the 20th century as a passion for economic and technological “antigravitation”. The rise of consumerism and the easing of the burdens of human life by the constant deployment of new technologies have killed off the kind of radicalism that was rooted in the belief that power would rise from a material base of production. If the 20th century can still inspire us today, it is because the fundamental shift that it brought about opened the way for a critique of extremist reason, a post-Marxist theory of enrichment and a general economy of energy resources based on excess and dissipation. While developing his highly original interpretation of the 20th century, Sloterdijk also addresses a series of related topics including the meaning of the Anthropocene, the domestication of humans and the significance of the sea. The volume also includes major new pieces on Derrida and on Heidegger’s politics. This work, by one of the most original thinkers today will appeal to students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences, as well as anyone interested in philosophy and critical theory.Table of Contents The Anthropocene - A Stage in the Process on the Margins of the Earth's History? From the Domestication of the Human Being to the Civilizing of Cultures: Answering the Question of Whether Humanity is Capable of Taming Itself The Ocean Experiment: From Nautical Globalization to a General Ecology The Synchronized World: Philosophical Aspects of Globalization What Happened in the 20th Century? Toward a Critique of Extremist Reason The Thinker in the Haunted Castle: On Derrida's Interpretation of Dreams Deep Observation: Towards a Philosophy of the Space Station The Permanent Renaissance: The Italian Novella and News of Modernity Heidegger's Politics: Postponing the End of History Odysseus the Sophist: On the Birth of Philosophy from the Spirit of Travel Stress Almost Sacred Text: Essay on the Constitution The Other Logos, or the Reason of Cunning: On the Intellectual History of the Indirect Editorial Note Notes

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Book SynopsisEpistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge. Epistemologists seek to understand knowledge’s nature and availability. What is knowledge? There are competing theories. Can we really have knowledge? Challenges abound. In this lively book, Stephen Hetherington introduces us to epistemological theorizing. He builds a theory and tests it, refines it, and challenges it again. He explores such topics as evidence, truth and belief, different kinds of knowledge, and knowledge’s value, as well as sceptical views concerning knowledge of the physical world, one’s own mind and memory, and rational limits for observation and reason. This epistemological theorizing is then applied to some of life’s most pressing issues, such as how to live and how to understand ourselves and others. What is Epistemology? is a practical and student-friendly guide to one of the most dynamic areas of philosophy. It will be the go-to introductory epistemology text.Trade Review�A wonderfully entertaining and lucid introduction to the philosophy of knowledge. Hetherington challenges readers to find their own epistemology and think about why knowledge matters. It�s hard to think of many, if any, better introductions to the subject.�Quassim Cassam, University of Warwick �Hetherington�s book is an ideal entry point not only to epistemology, but to philosophy itself. Working through a well-chosen series of issues, he shows how to construct a philosophical theory and how to embrace its impact on one�s life.�Baron Reed, Northwestern University �A clear, succinct, and intriguing introduction to contemporary epistemology. More importantly, it motivates readers to live an epistemological life. Anyone who is interested in epistemology is recommended to read this brilliant book.�The Philosophical QuarterlyTable of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements 1 Doing Epistemology 2 Kinds of Knowledge? 3 A First Theory of Knowledge 4 Refining Our Theory of Knowledge 5 Is it even Possible to have Knowledge? 6 Applying Epistemology Further Reading

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Book SynopsisEpistemology is the philosophical study of knowledge. Epistemologists seek to understand knowledge’s nature and availability. What is knowledge? There are competing theories. Can we really have knowledge? Challenges abound. In this lively book, Stephen Hetherington introduces us to epistemological theorizing. He builds a theory and tests it, refines it, and challenges it again. He explores such topics as evidence, truth and belief, different kinds of knowledge, and knowledge’s value, as well as sceptical views concerning knowledge of the physical world, one’s own mind and memory, and rational limits for observation and reason. This epistemological theorizing is then applied to some of life’s most pressing issues, such as how to live and how to understand ourselves and others. What is Epistemology? is a practical and student-friendly guide to one of the most dynamic areas of philosophy. It will be the go-to introductory epistemology text.Trade Review�A wonderfully entertaining and lucid introduction to the philosophy of knowledge. Hetherington challenges readers to find their own epistemology and think about why knowledge matters. It�s hard to think of many, if any, better introductions to the subject.�Quassim Cassam, University of Warwick �Hetherington�s book is an ideal entry point not only to epistemology, but to philosophy itself. Working through a well-chosen series of issues, he shows how to construct a philosophical theory and how to embrace its impact on one�s life.�Baron Reed, Northwestern University �A clear, succinct, and intriguing introduction to contemporary epistemology. More importantly, it motivates readers to live an epistemological life. Anyone who is interested in epistemology is recommended to read this brilliant book.�The Philosophical Quarterly

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Book SynopsisA novel way of looking at information challenges longstanding dogmas—from a preeminent German thinker It is widely agreed that we live in an “information age,” but what exactly is information? This small, seemingly facile question is in fact surprisingly difficult, and it has occupied many of the best philosophical minds of the modern age. In this wholly original addition to the quest to understand information, German philosopher Peter Janich argues that our understanding of information is based in the much broader history of scientific naturalism—the belief that science is a fundamental aspect of the world and not a human contrivance. His novel critique of this widespread dogma grounds science in human life practices and wrestles with the very fundamentals of the scientific way of understanding reality.Offering new perspectives on the major contemporary fields of communications technology, neurobiology, and artificial intelligence, What Is Information? provides a deep look into humanity in an information age. Its arguments show ways of reconciling the sciences and the humanities, shining new light on the relationship of science to the natural world.Trade Review"Peter Janich’s What is Information? is a philosophical unicorn. This short, punchy text offers civil defense against philosophical catastrophe. It is a one-stop shop for repairing conceptual sloppiness in how we talk about information. Written with a sly wit, it is not only abstract: its extended meditation on various technologies breaks fresh ground in the philosophy and history of media. Janich joins a multi-tongued chorus proclaiming that bad things happen when we let media get away with pretending to be invisible."—John Durham Peters, author of The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental MediaTable of ContentsTranslators’ IntroductionEric Hayot and Lea Pao1. Information and Myth2. Legacies3. Articles of Faith4. Information Concepts Today5. Methodical Repair Work6. ConsequencesTranslators’ AcknowledgmentsNotesPeter Janich: A Partial BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThe first English-language collection to establish curiosity studies as a unique field From science and technology to business and education, curiosity is often taken for granted as an unquestioned good. And yet, few people can define curiosity. Curiosity Studies marshals scholars from more than a dozen fields not only to define curiosity but also to grapple with its ethics as well as its role in technological advancement and global citizenship. While intriguing research on curiosity has occurred in numerous disciplines for decades, no rigorously cross-disciplinary study has existed—until now. Curiosity Studies stages an interdisciplinary conversation about what curiosity is and what resources it holds for human and ecological flourishing. These engaging essays are integrated into four clusters: scientific inquiry, educational practice, social relations, and transformative power. By exploring curiosity through the practice of scientific inquiry, the contours of human learning, the stakes of social difference, and the potential of radical imagination, these clusters focus and reinvigorate the study of this universal but slippery phenomenon: the desire to know. Against the assumption that curiosity is neutral, this volume insists that curiosity has a history and a political import and requires precision to define and operationalize. As various fields deepen its analysis, a new ecosystem for knowledge production can flourish, driven by real-world problems and a commitment to solve them in collaboration. By paying particular attention to pedagogy throughout, Curiosity Studies equips us to live critically and creatively in what might be called our new Age of Curiosity.Contributors: Danielle S. Bassett, U of Pennsylvania; Barbara M. Benedict, Trinity College; Susan Engel, Williams College; Ellen K. Feder, American U; Kristina T. Johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Narendra Keval; Christina León, Princeton U; Tyson Lewis, U of North Texas; Amy Marvin, U of Oregon; Hilary M. Schor, U of Southern California; Seeta Sistla, Hampshire College; Heather Anne Swanson, Aarhus U.Table of ContentsContentsForewordPamela Grossman and John L. Jackson Jr.Introduction: What Is Curiosity Studies?Perry Zurn and Arjun Shankar Part I. Interrogating the Scientific Enterprise1. Exploring the Costs of Curiosity: An Environmental Scientist’s DilemmaSeeta Sistla2. Curious Ecologies of Knowledge: More-than-Human AnthropologyHeather Anne Swanson3. Curiosity, Ethics, and the Medical Management of Intersex AnatomiesEllen K. FederPart II. Relearning How We Learn4. A Network Science of the Practice of CuriosityDanielle S. Bassett5. Why Should This Be So? The Waxing and Waning of Children’s CuriositySusan Engel6. The Dude Abides, or, Why Curiosity Is Important for Education TodayTyson Lewis7. “The Campus is Sick”: Capitalist Curiosity and Student Mental HealthArjun ShankarPart III. Reimagining How We Relate8. Autism, Neurodiversity, and CuriosityKristina T. Johnson9. Obstacles to Curiosity and Concern: Exploring the Racist ImaginationNarendra Keval10. Curious Entanglements: Opacity and Ethical Relation in Latina/o AestheticsChristina León11. Transsexuality, the Curio, and the Transgender Tipping PointAmy MarvinPart IV. Deconstructing the Status Quo12. Peeping and Transgression: Curiosity and Collecting in English LiteratureBarbara M. Benedict13. Curiosity and Political ResistancePerry Zurn14. Curiosity at the End of the World: Women, Fiction, ElectricityHilary M. SchorConclusion: On Teaching CuriosityArjun Shankar and Perry Zurn AfterwordHelga NowotnyAcknowledgmentsContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisUnique access to archival material of a major thinker, including presentations, early drafts, and a thorough introduction to the history of the philosophical notion of the individual The second volume of Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information presents archival documents detailing both the preliminary research conducted by Gilbert Simondon as well as sketches of early drafts and presentations of his work throughout the intellectual era of his eventual magnum opus. Volume II provides an erudite and important overview of a unique history of both the role the individual has played throughout history in philosophy, religion, and society as well as insight into the contemporary machinations and exciting milieu in which Simondon dared to tread as an interdisciplinary thinker in philosophy and psychology, as well as the new burgeoning fields of computer science and cybernetics. This companion volume provides insight into Simondon’s primary thesis, for which he is renowned by scholars in a wide range of academic disciplines. Readers across the humanities and the sciences, information theory, philosophy of technology, and many other fields now have a vital resource for intellectual exploration into the human’s ongoing relationship with the technological universe.

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Book SynopsisEPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Economic theory relies heavily on the idea of rational action, but how are we to understand the empirical content of rational choice when we can only observe the outcome, not what goes into making the choice? With contributions from Alan Kirman and Rod O'Donnell, Karl Mittermaier's posthumously published work establishes a new conceptual framework that will enable economic theorists to forge new paths of empirical analysis. Introducing readers to the work of a profound thinker who was not recognized in his lifetime, this book, featuring previously unpublished material, is poised to become a seminal text in the philosophy of social sciences.Table of ContentsForeword - Isabella Mittermaier Extended Preface: A Realistic Attitude to the Economy - Alan Kirman Prologue: Mittermaier’s Conceptual Framework - Rod O’Donnell 1. Institutions and the Empirical Content of Economics 2. Ex Post and Ex Ante Facts 3. Structure and Equilibrium 4. Rational Action 5. Variant Conceptions of Preferences 6. The Genetic Understanding and Institutions

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Book SynopsisDRETSKE AND HIS CRITICS Dretske and his Critics Frederick Dretske’s views on the nature of seeing, the possibility of knowledge, the nature of content or non-natural meaning, the nature of behavior, and the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior have been profoundly important. Dretske and his Critics contains original discussions of these issues by John Heil, Stuart Cohen, David H. Sanford, Jaegwon Kim, Fred Adams, Daniel Dennett, Robert Cummins, Terence Horgan and Brian McLaughlin. Each chapter is responded to by Dretske himself. In Seeing and Knowing (1968), Dretske argued that there is a relational sense of seeing according to which, if one sees X, then X exists (or occurs); and if one sees X, and X = Y, then one sees Y. He carefully contrasted seeing in this relational sense with seeing that something is the case. In his contribution to this volume, Heil examines Dretske’s notion of non-epistemic seeing. Dretske is largely responsible for the relevant alternatives response to skepticism about knowledge. In arguing that we cannot know the sorts of things we ordinarily claim to know, the skeptic appeals to irrelevant alternatives that the purported knower cannot eliminate. In their contributions to this volume, Cohen and Sanford examine Dretske’s relevant alternatives response to skepticism about knowledge. In Explaining Behavior: Reasons in a World of Causes (1988), Dretske defended a component account of behavior, and offered original, naturalized accounts of the nature of content and of the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior. In their contributions, Kim, Adams, Dennett, Cummins, and Horgan examine Dretske’s account of behavior and his naturalized account of the role of content in the causal explanation of behavior. McLaughlin focuses on Dretske’s naturalized account of content.Table of ContentsPerceptual experience, John Heil; scepticism, relevance, and relativity, Stewart Cohen; proper knowledge, David H.Sanford; Dretske on how reasons explain behaviour, Jaegwon Kim; actions, reasons, and the explanatory role of content, Terence Horgan; the role of mental meaning in psychological explanation, Robert Cummins; ways of establishing harmony, Daniel C.Dennett; causal contents, Frederick Adams; belief individuation and Dretske on naturalizing content, Brian P.McLaughlin; Dretske's replies.

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Book SynopsisThe Metaphysics of Free Will provides a through statement of the major grounds for skepticism about the reality of free will and moral responsibility. The author identifies and explains the sort of control that is associated with personhood and accountability, and shows how it is consistent with causal determinism. In so doing, out view of ourselves as morally responsible agents is protected against the disturbing changes posed by science and religion.Trade Review"This is an excellent book, a first-rate contribution to the literature. Its combination of thoroughness and accessibility is rare in the literature on free will. The arguments are skillfully crafted and sometimes stunningly ingenious." Alfred Mele, Davidson College "This is a delightful and masterful philosophical work. What Fischer has to say about freedom and moral responsibility is always interesting and plausible and often persuasive. He presents the issues clearly and elegantly and advances considerably the discussion on them." Michael Zimmerman, University of North CarolinaTable of ContentsAcknowledgements. 1. The Issues. 2. The Transfer Principle: Its Plausability. 3. The Transfer Prnciple: Its Role. 4. The Laws and the Past: The Conditional Version of the Argument. 5. The Basic Version and Newcomb's Problem. 6. The Facts. 7. Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities. 8. Moral Responsibility and Guidance Control. 9. Putting it Together. Notes. Fischer Bibliography. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisIn this volume, author John Perry develops a "reflexive-referential" account of indexicals, demonstratives and proper names. On these issues the philosophy of language in the 20th century was shaped by two competing traditions, descriptivist and referentialist. Referentialist tradition is portrayed as holding that indexicals contribute content that involves individuals without identifying conditions on them. Descriptivist tradition is portrayed as holding that referential content does not explain all of the identifying conditions conveyed by names and indexicals. This text reveals a coherent and structured family of contents - from reflexive contents that place conditions on their actual utterance to the fully incremental contents that place conditions only on the objects of reference - reconciling the insights of both traditions.

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Book Synopsis"What do you see when you look at your face in the mirror?" asks J. David Velleman in introducing his philosophical theory of action. He takes this simple act of self-scrutiny as a model for the reflective reasoning of rational agents: our efforts to understand our existence and conduct are aided by our efforts to make it intelligible. Reflective reasoning, Velleman argues, constitutes practical reasoning. By applying this conception, "Practical Reflection" develops philosophical accounts of intention, free will, and the foundation of morals. This new edition of "Practical Reflection" contains the original 1989 text along with a new introduction and is the latest entry in the "David Hume Series of Philosophy" and "Cognitive Science Reissues", which keeps in print previously published indispensable works in the area of cognitive science.

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Book SynopsisIn this book, renowned philosopher John Perry responds to criticisms of his influential writing on “the essential indexical.” He begins by explaining the conclusions of his past articles. He then argues that many criticisms are based on confusions about the relation between the issues of opacity and cognitive significance, and other basic misunderstandings of his views. While dealing with criticisms, Perry makes a number of points about self-knowledge, the issue that motivated his original papers.

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Book SynopsisInformation and Mind explores questions of consciousness that Fred Dretske addressed in his philosophical career. Ranging from one of the earliest problems Dretske analyzed—the nature of seeing an object—to epistemological issues that he began working on mid-career, to matters he focused on in later years, including information, mental representation, and conscious experience, this volume investigates and engages with a spectrum of his prolific works. These papers, written by former colleagues and students from the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University, were inspired by talks given at the Center for the Explanation of Consciousness at Stanford in 2015 to celebrate Dretske’s life and work. In addition to scholarly essays, the authors also recount stories of personal interactions with Dretske that transformed their views or changed their professional trajectory. A bibliography of Dretske’s publications rounds out the volume. This generous volume includes contributions by Fred Adams, John A. Barker, John Perry, Paul Skokowski, and Dennis Stampe.Table of ContentsContributors Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Dretskean Externalism about Knowledge 3. Representation and Possibility 4. Three Dogmas of Internalism 5. Perceptual Activity and the Object of Perception Bibliography of Fred Dretske’s Publications Index

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Book SynopsisAn ontological and epistemological framework and foundation for the psychological symptom 'neurosis'.

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Book SynopsisThe human world is in a mess. The human mind is in a mess. And now the human species is threatening its own survival by its own inventions and by war. For thousands of years, human beings conducted a great debate about the human condition and human possibilities, about philosophy and society and law. In 1516, Thomas More, in his book Utopia, contributed to the ancient debate, at another time of profound transformation in the human world. In our own time, we have witnessed a collapse in intellectual life, and a collapse in the theory and practice of education. The old debate is, for all practical purposes, dead.In 2016, Philip Allott's Eutopia resumes the debate about the role of philosophy and society and law in making a better human future, responding to a human world that More could not have imagined. And he lets us hear the voices of some of those who contributed to the great debate in the past, voices that still resonate today.Trade Review'Allott's Eutopia is audaciously ambitious and unconventional in style and content. It seeks no less than to do for the 21st century what Thomas More's Utopia and Francis Bacon's Great Instauration did in the English Renaissance: To help bring about a transformation of human self-understanding, overcome fatalism and inertia ultimately grounded in mistaken ideas of the the human condition and the limits of human power, and become aware of the permanent possibility of making the human world into a ''place of happiness''.' --Mattias Kumm, New York University, School of Law'No international thinker today offers more profound insights, or offers more challenging questions, on the possibilities for law and philosophy to touch our lives and our world than does Philip Allott. A quarter of a century after publishing Eunomia, Allott unleashes an entirely original, magnificent, challenging and overwhelming book, one that asks us to confront fatalism and to imagine the possibility that thought and ideas have the power to enhance the future of the human.' --Philippe Sands QC, Professor of Laws, University College London, UK'What would happen if you decided to rethink the human condition from the ground up? If you spent a lifetime at it, taking along the works of the greatest minds who tried this before? You might conclude, with Philip Allott, that ''the human species will need a revolution -- a revolution in the mind -- to become what it could be.'' And that ''we have the power to transform the human world.'' Eutopia is the work of a singular mind, a heroically independent thinker who brings the full power of his synthetic intelligence and style to bear in this philosophical tour de force. Allott will entertain you, challenge you, educate you -- and you may end up changing the world!' --David Kennedy, Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law, Harvard Law SchoolTable of ContentsContents: Part I THE HUMAN CONDITION 1. Changing Reality by Changing Ideas. 2. The Human Condition Now. 3. Paradoxes of Being Human I 4. Paradoxes of Being Human II PART II HUMAN POWER 5. The Power of Memory 6. The Power of Imagination 7. The Power of Knowledge 8. The Power of Emotion PART III HUMAN WILL 9. New Philosophy: Human Flourishing through Self-understanding 10. New Law: Human Flourishing Through Self-ordering 11. New Society: Living the Good Life Together 12. From Istopia to Eutopia Index

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Book SynopsisThe Challenge of Complexity gathers in one volume over 32 essays by the esteemed French philosopher and sociologist, Edgar Morin, probably France's greatest living public intellectual. The essays span six decades of his career, addressing topics such as complexity, sociology, ecology, education, film, biology, and politics. At his centenary (July 2021), Morin holds honorary doctorates from over 20 universities in Europe and Latin America, and recently the Centre d'Etudes Transdisciplinaires, Sociologie, Anthropologie, Histoire, at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the prestigious French National Research Center, was renamed the Centre Edgar-Morin. He is also the UNESCO Chair of Complex Thought. Several university centres and institutes have been dedicated to advancing his work in Europe and Latin America. He is the author of more than 80 books, translated into 28 languages, and the 1960 documentary Chronicle of a Summer, which he co-directed with Jean Rouch, has become a classic and the first example of cinema verite. Morin's work on complexity is distinct from the mathematically driven science of complexity. He argues for an epistemological revolution and focuses on the need to develop complex thought to address the lived complexity of an interconnected, interdependent, uncertain world. Morin's contribution in such a wide range of disciplines has been influential because of his ability to bring complex thought to bear on seemingly diverse topics, reflecting on the limitations of how they are approached and articulating a transdisciplinary way that doesnt sacrifice complexity in an effort to find an oversimplified clarity. Morin illuminates the complexity and creativity of the world and of our lived experience, and invites us to participate in the creative process that is existence itself. A substantive overview of Morin's philosophical journey by Alfonso Montuori introduces the reader to Morin's remarkable work and life. And the work is completed by a substantive Letter from Edgar Morin, putting his life's work in the context of recent advances in Science and the Humanities.

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Book SynopsisThe adventure of philosophy began in Greece, where it was gradually developed by the ancient thinkers as a special kind of knowledge by which to explain the totality of things. In fact, the Greek language has always used the word onta, ""beings,"" to refer to things. At the end of the sixth century BCE, Parmenides wrote a poem to affirm his fundamental thesis upon which all philosophical systems should be based: that there are beings.In By Being, It Is, Néstor-Luis Cordero explores the richness of this Parmenidean thesis, which became the cornerstone of philosophy. Cordero's textual analysis of the poem's fragments reveals that Parmenides' intention was highly didactic. His poem applied, for the first time, an explicative method that deduced consequences from a true axiom: by being, it is. To ignore this reality meant to be a victim of opinions.This volume explains how without this conceptual base, all later ontology would have been impossible. This book offers a clear and concise introduction to the Parmenidean doctrine and helps the reader appreciate the imperative value of Parmenides's claim that ""by being, it is.Trade ReviewBy Being, It Is, a work which shares with Curd and Hermann the view that Parmenides’ interest is primarily in method; though Cordero takes a more metaphysical line on what the method is for, arguing not only that Parmenides’ poem was not cosmological, but that it makes no sense even to talk of cosmology in a Parmenidean context. The sum of Parmenides’ contention is that ‘that which is being is’ – a thesis explored in the first route described by the goddess. (The second route, identified with the path taken later on by mortals when they mix being with not-being, explores the absurdity of negating this thesis.) . . . the argument itself its powerful, and Cordero’s work invaluable for its reassessment of the textual tradition for Parmenides, which has led him to challenge crucial readings whose speculative roots most of us have forgotten, or else ignore"". - Cambridge Journals

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Book SynopsisThis translation is the result of a collaboration between Arnold Hermann and Dr. Sylvana Chrysakopoulou. Heeding the challenge of balancing intelligibility with faithfulness—while maintaining sufficient consistency to allow the discernment of technical terms—great pains have been taken to secure both accuracy and accessibility. In his Foreword, Douglas Hedley gives an insightful account of the way the Parmenides was received by different cultures and philosophical schools throughout the centuries to the present day.Hermann’s Introduction, aimed at first time readers and professional interpreters alike, offers an overview of the most noted philosophical problems addressed in the dialogue, and of its historical background. In view of the fact that certain individual issues have been exhaustively explored by generations of scholars, Hermann chooses to focus also on subjects that have at times been passed over, or trivialized: the debt the dialogue may owe to the works of earlier thinkers, or whether it constitutes a response to certain critics of the Theory of Forms; as for the Theory itself, whether it is bolstered or superseded by the dialogue’s conclusions, or whether there is such a thing as a “simple,” unparticipated Form, and if there is, why it cannot be the subject of an account; also, the issue of the “interweaving of Forms,” (the Sophist) is discussed, in light of its possible relevance to the Second Part of the Parmenides. Finally, Hermann provides an overview with a listing and summaries of the individual conclusions to each of the eight central arguments of the dialgoue’s Second Part (plus Coda).Trade ReviewIn his 70-page introduction, Arnold Hermann himself is somewhat more restrained. He sees the First Part of the dialogue as targeting ‘naive misreadings’ (15) of the Theory of Forms, and the Second Part as ‘a successful attempt to illuminate the difficulties raised by the First’ (17). For instance (to take an easy example), a form is ‘itself by itself’, and such simplicity or straightforwardness is explored in Argument I of the Second Part. Or again, since Forms have to interweave, they can be seen as complex, such as the ‘One Being’ of Argument II. These are not original lines of thought, but the introduction well conveys the author's enthusiasm for a dialogue that strikes many as rather dry. Throughout, Hermann corroborates his views by drawing connections with the thought of the Parmenides and Zeno, and other Platonic passages"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisThe much-anticipated anthology on Plato’s Timaeus—Plato’s singular dialogue on the creation of the universe, the nature of the physical world, and the place of persons in the cosmos—examining all dimensions of one of the most important books in Western Civilization: its philosophy, cosmology, science, and ethics, its literary aspects and reception. Contributions come from leading scholars in their respective fields, including Sir Anthony Leggett, 2003 Nobel Laureate for Physics. Parts of or earlier versions of these papers were first presented at the Timaeus Conference, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in September of 2007.To this day, Plato’s Timaeus grounds the form of ethical and political thinking called Natural Law—the view that there are norms in nature that provide the patterns for our actions and ground the objectivity of human values. Beyond the intellectual content of the dialogue’s core, its literary frame is also the source of the myth of Atlantis, giving the West the concept of the “lost world.”From Platonic space to Presocratic vortices, from Philosopher-Kings to Craftsman-Gods and from modern physics to the myth of Atlantis, One Book, The Whole Universe presents in one volume the most up-to-date and penetrating scholarship on Plato’s Timaeus by some of the greatest minds alive today.Trade ReviewOne Book, The Whole Universe is remarkably thorough in the treatment of its chosen text (a thesis that can be confirmed by the index locorum) and contains precisely the sort of articles that one would want and expect in a scholarly collection on the Timaeus. There is scarcely a Timaean topic of traditional interest to scholars that is not mentioned or even given a detailed explanation"". - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

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Book SynopsisHow was the universe created, and what is our place within it? These are the questions at the heart of Plotinus’ Against the Gnostics. For the Gnostics, the universe came into being as a result of the soul’s fall from intelligible reality—it is the evil outcome of a botched creation. Plotinus challenges this, and insists that the soul’s creation of the world is the necessary consequence of its contemplation of the ideal forms. While the Gnostics claim to despise the visible universe, Plotinus argues that such contempt displays their ignorance of the higher realities of which the cosmos is a beautiful image.Against the Gnostics is a polemical text. It aims to show the superiority of Plotinus’ philosophy over that of his Gnostic rivals, and poses unique challenges: Plotinus nowhere identifies his opponents by name, he does not set out their doctrines in any great detail, and his arguments are frequently elliptical. The detailed commentary provides a guide through these difficulties, making Plotinus’ meandering train of thought in this important treatise accessible to the reader.

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Book SynopsisThe term dunamis (potentiality) entered into the philosophical vocabulary with Plato, but it was with Aristotle that it acquired, together with energeia (actuality), the strong technical meaning that the two terms have maintained, with variations, throughout subsequent philosophical tradition.The significance of the notions of actuality and potentiality in Plotinus’ thought can hardly be overstated. Throughout the Enneads, they are crucial to understanding the specific causality of intelligible realities and the relation of participation between intelligible and sensible realms.In Ennead II.5, Plotinus for the first time provides a systematic clarification of his peculiar use of these terms, through a sustained revision of Aristotle’s own elaboration of the topic and of his terminology. The treatise discusses the different meanings of potentiality and actuality as well as the way each of them applies or does not apply to the sensible realm, to the intelligible realm, and to matter.While the structure of the text unfolds in a coherent and cohesive manner, Plotinus’ writing in this treatise is dense and at times dry in its technicality. The detailed commentary guides the reader step by step, making an otherwise particularly difficult text accessible. Trade ReviewThis text is difficult due to Plotinus’ dense style. Based on the inclusion of important research in recent years, such as that of Narbonne and Kalligas, and on the author’s own contributions, Cinzia Arruzza’s new English translation is an improvement compared with the older ones. And her clear commentary not only sheds light upon the difficult text, but also offers innovative investigation of and answers to the controversial problems in this treatise"". - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Book SynopsisPlotinus’ Ennead V.8, originally part of a single work (with III.8, V.5, and II.9), provides the foundation for a positive view of the universe as an image of divine beauty against the Gnostic rejection of the world. Although it emphasizes the cosmic dimension of beauty, it is, as are most treatises of Plotinus, concerned with the individual soul. The notion that the artist has within him an idea of beauty that derives directly from the intelligible world in fact coincides with his theory that each one of us has access to Intellect through his or her own intellect. It is the exploitation of this theme that forms the central dynamic of the treatise, with its stress on our ability to ""see"" and be one with the intelligible world and its beauty.

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Book SynopsisEnnead IV.4.30–45 and IV.5 retrieves the unity in this last section of Plotinus’ treatise on Problems concerning the Soul. Combining translation with commentary, Gurtler enhances both the accuracy of the translation and the recovery of Plotinus’ often unsuspected originality. This is especially true for IV.5, where previous translations fail to convey the concise nature of his argument against both the Aristotelian and Platonic theories of vision.Plato and Aristotle each claim that vision depends on the light between the eye and the object, but Plotinus presents evidence that this is not the case and develops a novel theory of light as a second activity that moves from source to object directly, even arguing that color is in the light itself rather than merely a quality of the object. This theory of vision, in turn, depends on the nature of sympathy developed especially in IV.4.30–45, where Plotinus shows how action at a distance is both possible and necessary for the proper unity in diversity of the sensible cosmos.Trade ReviewIn this third and last part of ‘Problems Concerning the Soul’, Plotinus takes up three final problems or aporiai; insights from the first two parts are used to attack the popularly-credited influence of the planets on human enterprises, and the attendant problem of their memory and cooperation with evil"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisPlotinus was much exercised by Plato's doctrines of the soul. In this treatise, at chapter 1 line 27, he talks of "the divine Plato, who has said in many places in his works many noble things about the soul and its arrival here, so that we can hope for some clarity from him. So what does the philosopher say? It is clear that he does not always speak with sufficient consistency for us to make out his intentions with any ease." The issue in this treatise is one that has puzzled students of Plato from ancient to modern times—and is indeed a popular topic for undergraduate essays even today: Why should the philosopher, who has ascended through a long and painful process of dialectic to "assimilation to the divine," ever descend back into the body? Plotinus himself is said by Porphyry to have attained such a state of other-worldly transcendence on at least four occasions during his lifetime, so this was a very real and personal issue for him. In this treatise we see him grappling with it.Trade Review"This volume makes an excellent start to the series. Barrie Fleet's translation is both accurate and readable. His scholarly and well-informed commentary is particularly valuable in demonstrating how Plotinus' views on the soul arise from the interpretation of Plato." Anne SheppardProfessor of Ancient PhilosophyRoyal Holloway, University of London, UK "The first volume of a new series of translations and commentaries, edited by John Dillon and Andrew Smith, is devoted to Enn IV.8. We are in the capable hands of Barrie Fleet, author of an important previous study on Enn III.6...Fleet's introduction to the treatise and his commentary will be especially helpful to readers coming to Plotinus for the first time ...[He] provides extensive discussion of the Platonic passages that inspired Plotinus; an approach that fits IV.8 especially well, since this treatise is unusually explicit in its doxographical use of Plato. Overall the volume is a promising beginning to a new series that will provide an English readership with something akin to the single-treatise commentaries and translations published by Cerf in France." Peter AdamsonProfessor of Ancient and Medieval PhilosophyKing's College London, UK "Enn. IV 8 is one of Plotinus' most fascinating essays. It begins by addressing what for ancient Platonism was a very traditional topic, namely the descent of the soul, and examines it in the light of his own personal experience, while also taking into account the doctrines of previous thinkers including Plato and Aristotle. It concludes by expounding a radically novel view according to which no real descent occurs after all. This involves a fundamental reassessment of the status of the soul and its position in the universe and, furthermore, a new understanding of its association with the body and with sensible reality as a whole. Fleet's presentation is highly readable and informative, and provides an excellent introduction to Plotinus' views on man and his relation to the cosmos." Paul KalligasProfessor of Ancient PhilosophyUniversity of Athens, Greece "A clear and accurate translation of one of Plotinus' first and more significant writings, accompanied by a helpful commentary for the English-speaking reader." Dominic O'MearaProfessor EmeritusChair of Metaphysics and Ancient PhilosophyUniversity of Fribourg, SwitzerlandTable of ContentsIntroduction: Achilles' Shield; The Fall; The Ambassadors of Death; Horse & Rider; The Silence of Words; The Structure of Narrative; The Chaos of Colors & the Order of Words; The Fallen Angel & the Survivor's Burning Eye; Epilogue: Ekphrasis, Mimesis & the Difference between Word & Image; Index.

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Book SynopsisEnnead IV.7 is a very early treatise (second according to Porphyry’s chronological table), and unlike the many treatises devoted to attempts at untangling various issues Plotinus found problematic in Plato’s thinking, this one presents the teachings of the other main schools current in Plotinus’ day: the Stoics, Epicureans, Pythagoreans, and Peripatetics, all of whom presented soul as something material or as contingent upon material soul, and so as being neither truly immortal nor imperishable.It includes observations on many mainly Stoic doctrines on perception, memory, sensation, thought, virtue, powers of material bodies, mixture and reproduction (Chapters 1–83); on Pythagorean attunement (84); and on Peripatetic entelechy (85). In Chapters 9–10 Plotinus presents, in broad terms, Plato’s doctrines on soul’s immortality—mainly that of the individual soul, but a fortiori that of the soul of the cosmos. These chapters offer some of Plotinus’ most powerful prose.He is not concerned to prove the soul’s immortality—that was an uncontroversial tenet of Platonism, to be taken for granted. In this treatise Plotinus is laying down the in­disputable foundations for his later writings.

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Book SynopsisThis book shows how participatory research can provide tools to overcome the current epistemic and ethical challenges faced by traditional scientific approaches. Ever since Funtowicz and Ravetz proposed the notion of post-normal science, there has been a growing awareness of the limits of a form of knowledge production based only on the traditional scientific peer communities that excludes other social groups affected by its results and applications. The growing uncertainty and complexity posed by socio-ecological issues in the interactions between science, society and decision making has revealed the importance of a social quality control over crucial decisions that rely on scientific research and the necessary democratization of knowledge to tackle sustainability and health concerns.Departing from a reinterpretation of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this volume shows how participatory research can contribute to reconnect science and society by extending peer communities through the incorporation of different forms of knowledge and different social actors into research projects. To do so, the author presents a critical review of different participatory research approaches, identifying the elements that distinguish a true participatory research from a traditional one, and proposing a taxonomy of the various participatory methodologies. The volume also analyzes a diversity of social practices and understandings that deal with an ecology of knowledge and its systemic characteristics. Moreover, it demonstrates that uncertainties can be integrated in dialogical processes that open possibilities for a myriad of outcomes. Participatory Research in the Post-Normal Age - Unsustainability and Uncertainties to Rethink Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed will be of interest to researchers working with participatory approaches in different fields like health, environmental sciences, and education, as well as to practitioners of action research concerned with scientific dilemmas and counter-hegemonic strategies.Table of Contents1. Introduction: The relevance of participatory approaches towards contemporary dilemmas.- 2. Insights from the contemporary contradictions in science-society relationship.- 3. Participation and sustainability.- 4. Adaptive methods.- 5. The need for a taxonomy.- 6. Concluding on the role of participatory approaches for the post-normal age.

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Book SynopsisThis volume explores the possibilities and pressures of the language of revelation on human understanding. How can we critically account for divine self-disclosure in the linguistically mediated world of human concerns? Does the structure of interpretation limit the language of revelation? Does revelation open up new horizons of critical interpretation? The volume brings together theologians who approach the interactions of revelation and hermeneutics with different perspectives, including various forms of phenomenology and comparative theology. It approaches the theme of revelation – central as it is to the theological endeavour – from several angles rather than a single methodological program. Dealing as it does with revelation and understanding, the volume addresses the foundational issues at stake in the challenges around change, identity, and faithfulness currently facing the church. Table of ContentsPart I: Revelation and Givenness.- 1. Interpreting the Excess (Jean-Luc Marion).- 2. On Givenness and Revelation: Reading Experience (Robyn Horner).- 3. Revelation and the Kingdom (Kevin Hart).- 4. Cyril of Alexandria and the Hermeneutics of the Body (William C. Hackett).- Part II: Revelation and Understanding.- 5. Revelation and Authority (Sandra Schneiders).- 6. Hermeneutics of Love: Moving Beyond the Hermeneutics of Revelation to the Hermeneutics of Signification (Werner Jeanrond).- 7. Lonergan and Gadamer: Rethinking the Theological Foundations of Revelation (Frederick Lawrence).- 8. Blue Eden: Water as a Window into Revelation (Michele Saracino).- Part III: Revelation and Comparative Theology.- 9. From Hermeneutics to Revelation: How Hindu Methods of Reading Introduce Us to Revelation (Francis X. Clooney).- 10. The Logic of Revelation (Peter Ochs).- 11. The Qur’an on Reading the Qur’an: The Hermeneutics of Islamic Revelation (Maria Dakake).- 12. The Power of Revelation: Overcoming Essentialism in Theological Configurations of Christianity and World Religions (Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer).

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Book SynopsisThis book provides both an introduction to the philosophy of scientific modeling and a contribution to the discussion and clarification of two recent philosophical conceptions of models: artifactualism and fictionalism. These can be viewed as different stances concerning the standard representationalist account of scientific models. By better understanding these two alternative views, readers will gain a deeper insight into what a model is as well as how models function in different sciences.Fictionalism has been a traditional epistemological stance related to antirealist construals of laws and theories, such as instrumentalism and inferentialism. By contrast, the more recent fictional view of models holds that scientific models must be conceived of as the same kind of entities as literary characters and places. This approach is essentially an answer to the ontological question concerning the nature of models, which in principle is not incompatible with a representationalist account of the function of models. The artifactual view of models is an approach according to which scientific models are epistemic artifacts, whose main function is not to represent the phenomena but rather to provide epistemic access to them. It can be conceived of as a non-representationalist and pragmatic account of modeling, which does not intend to focus on the ontology of models but rather on the ways they are built and used for different purposes. The different essays address questions such as the artifactual view of idealization, the use of information theory to elucidate the concepts of abstraction and idealization, the deidealization of models, the nature of scientific fictions, the structural account of representation and the ontological status of structures, the role of surrogative reasoning with models, and the use of models for explaining and predicting physical phenomena.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Theories, Models, and Scientific Representations (Alejandro Cassini and Juan Redmond).- Chapter 2. An Artifactual Perspective on Idealization: Constant Capacitance and the Hodgkin and Huxley Model (Natalia Carrillo and Tarja Knuuttila).- Chapter 3. Informative Models: Idealization and Abstraction (Mauricio Suárez and Agnes Bolinska).- Chapter 4. Deidealized Models (Alejandro Cassini).- Chapter 5. Scientific Representation as Ensemble-Plus-Sanding-for: A Moderate Fictionalist Account (José A. Díez).- Chapter 6. Seven Myths About the Fiction View of Models (Roman Frigg and James Nguyen).- Chapter 7. Bridging the Gap: The Artefactual View Meets the Fiction View of Models (Fiora Salis).- Chapter 8. Models as Hypostatizations: The Case of Supervaluationism in Semantics (Manuel García-Carpintero).- Chapter 9. Structural Representation and the Ontology of Models (Otávio Bueno).- Chapter 10. Representation and Surrogate Reasoning: A Proposal from Dialogical Pragmatism (Juan Redmond).- Chapter 11. Prediction and Explanation by Theoretical Models:An Instrumentalist Stance (Andrés Rivadulla).- Chapter 12. Commented Bibliography on Models and Idealizations (Alejandro Cassini).- Name Index.- Subject Index.-

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a fresh approach to the communicability of narratives, revealing the cognitive underpinnings of Charles Sanders Peirce’s pragmatistic model. It demonstrates how abductive processes modify habits of belief and action in what Peirce refers to as double consciousness. Abductions generated during double consciousness paradigms have increased efficacy compared to instinctual abductions. Novel inferences from working memory become consciously integrated with existing long-term memory units which permits fuller consideration of the plausibility of propositions. Special attention is given to children’s prelinguistic means to represent propositional or assertory conflicts, and to resolve these conflicts via listening and re-telling narrators’ accounts. Overall, this book serves both a theoretical and applied purpose. It is intended to support innovative therapeutic interventions to facilitate the (re)construction of narratives by adults and children. Its practical applications and theoretical grounding will appeal to graduate students and scholars alike, who wish to examine narrative as an interdisciplinary enterprise—an ontological and cultural phenomenon (narration by way of action/image sequences), not just a literary/linguistic paradigm. Ultimately, this account presents narrative as a modal forum to resolve logical and practical conflicts, compelling the interpreter to become an involved partner in the narrated event itself. Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction: Promoting Dialectic Processes Through Dialogic Inquiry.- Chapter 2: Semiotic Foundations of Narrative.- Chapter 3: Prelinguistic Considerations.- Chapter 4: Processing Precursors in Narrative Genres: The Case of Abductive Instinct.

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