Philosophy: metaphysics and ontology Books
Clarendon Press Berkeleys World An Examination of the Three Dialogues
Book SynopsisTom Stoneham offers a clear and detailed study of Berkeley''s metaphysics and epistemology, as presented in his classic work Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, originally published in 1713 and still widely studied today. Stoneham writes for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and academics in philosophy who are not specialists in the early modern period, and shows that Berkeley is an important and systematic philosopher whose work is still of relevance to philosophers today. Discussion of secondary literature is kept to a minimum (there are no footnotes!) and the interpretation defended shows his arguments as having greater strength and his views as having more plausibility than is usually recognized. Part 1 is a general overview. In Part 2, Berkeley is shown to be a direct realist about perception of the physical world who denies that the objects of either perception or of scientific theory are material. In Part 3, Berkeley''s positive views on substance, causation, action, free will, universals, concepts, identity, and persistence are also considered. While Berkeley''s immaterialism is criticized, its weaknesses are shown to lie in the details rather than in the big picture, which is no more implausible or unattractive than the materialist alternative.Trade Review...a fine book, with a lot of very good commentary and interpretation, along with a great deal of excellent philosophy. There is much to be gained by the study of this book, by both the scholar interested in Berkeley and the non-specialist philosopher. * George S. Pappas, Mind Journal *... contains interesting and original discussions ... While Stoneham eschews scholarly disputes, and dispenses with footnotes, his book will certainly interest Berkeley scholars, while also providing much useful, if challenging, discussion for non-specialists seeking to engage with central issues in Berkeley's philosophy. * The Philosophical Quarterly *Berkeley's World is a careful, systematic discussion of the arguments and claims presented in the philosophical fiction of the Three Dialogues. * British Journal for the History of Philosophy *Stoneham has given the reader a thorough presentation and analysis of the Dialogues. Anyone would benefit from a careful reading of Berkeley's World, including Berkeley scholars and historians of philosophy. * British Journal for the History of Philosophy *There is much to praise in this finely written book, most important being Stoneham's attempt to correct the facile but persistent mistaken interpretation of immaterialism and the nature of ideas. * British Journal for the History of Philosophy *Table of Contents1. Historical Introduction ; 2. Berkeley's World ; Appendix: A Quick Reference Guide to the Three Dialogues ; 3. The Sensible ; Appendix: Perception and Acquaintance ; 4. The Problem of Matter ; Appendix: On The So-Called Master Argument ; 5. God: Causation and Dependence ; Appendix: Official vs. Real Arguments ; 6. Action, Other Minds and the Self ; Appendix: Did Berkeley Hold a Volitionary Theory of Action? ; 7. Properties and Predicates ; 8. Objects and Identity ; 9. Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index
£43.99
Oxford University Press Reflections on Meaning
Book SynopsisPaul Horwich, one of the world''s most distinguished philosophers, develops in this book his highly original deflationary conception of language. His main aim in Reflections on Meaning is to explain how mere noises, marks, gestures, and mental symbols are able to capture the world - that is, how words and sentences (in whatever medium) come to mean what they do, to stand for certain things, to be true or false of reality. His answer is an innovative development of Wittgenstein''s idea that the meaning of a term is nothing more than its use.Trade ReviewThis lucid, closely argued, and stimulating book offers Horwich's latest formulation and defence of his Use Theory of Meaning . . . there is a great deal of interesting and nuanced argument on almost every page of this thought-provoking book, including detailed responses to important semantic theorists such as Chomsky, Davidson, Dummett, Fodor, Grice, Kripke, Putnam, and Quine. For anyone interested in the prospects for a use-based theory of meaning, or a naturalistic reduction of semantics, or who wants a clear sense of current issues at the cutting-edge of philosophy of language, Horwich's book is required reading. * David Macarthur, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. The Space of Issues and Options ; 2. A Use Theory of Meaning ; 3. The Pseudo-Problem of Error ; 4. The Sharpness of Vague Terms ; 5. Norms of Truth and Meaning ; 6. Meaning Constitution and Epistemic Rationality ; 7. Meaning and its Place in the Faculty of Language ; 8. Deflating Compositionality
£47.23
Oxford University Press The Reasons Proper Study
Book SynopsisBob Hale and Crispin Wright draw together here the key writings in which they have worked out their distinctive neo-Fregean approach to the philosophy of mathematics. The two main components in Frege''s mathematical philosophy were his platonism and his logicism -- the claims, respectively, that mathematics is a body of knowledge about independently existing objects, and that this knowledge may be acquired on the basis of general logical laws and suitable definitions. The central thesis of this collection is that Frege was -- his own eventual recantation notwithstanding -- substantially right in both claims. Where neo-Fregeanism principally differs from Frege is in taking a more optimistic view of the kind of contextual explanation (proceeding via what are now commonly called abstraction principles) of the fundamental concepts of arithmetic and analysis which Frege considered and rejected. On this basis, neo-Fregeanism promises defensible and attractive answers to some of the most impoTable of ContentsI. ONTOLOGY AND ABSTRACTION PRINCIPLES ; II. RESPONSES TO CRITICS ; III. HUME'S PRINCIPLE ; IV. ON THE DIFFERENTIATION OF ABSTRACTA ; V. BEYOND NUMBER-THEORY
£55.10
Oxford University Press Inc Our Stories
Book SynopsisIn this collection of essays on the metaphysical issues pertaining to death, the meaning of life, and freedom of the will, John Martin Fischer argues (against the Epicureans) that death can be a bad thing for the individual who dies. He defends the claim that something can be a bad thing--a misfortune--for an individual, even if he never experiences it as bad (and even if he does not any longer exist). Fischer also defends the commonsense asymmetry in our attitudes toward death and prenatal nonexistence: we are indifferent to the time before we are born, but we regret that we do not live longer. Further, Fischer argues (against the immortality curmudgeons, such as Heidegger and Bernard Williams), that immortal life could be desirable, and shows how the defense of the (possible) badness of death and the (possible) goodness of immortality exhibit a similar structure; on Fischer''s view, the badness of death and the goodness of life can be represented on spectra that display certain contiTrade Reviewa provocative work whose constitutive essays provide both an overview of the landscape of the debates in which Fischer is engaging... as well as productive engagement in their technicalities... applied philosophy at its best. * James Stacey Taylor, Mind *Table of Contents1. Introduction, "Meaning in Life and Death: Our Stories" ; 2. "Why is Death Bad?" ; 3 C "Death, Badness, and the Impossibility of "Death and the Psychological Conception of Personal Identity" ; 5. "Earlier Birth and Later Death: Symmetry Through Thick and Thin" ; 6. "Why Immortality is Not So Bad" ; 7. "Epicureanism About Death and Immortality" ; 8. "Stories" ; 9. "Free Will, Death, and Immortality: The Role of Narrative" ; 10. "Stories and the Meaning of Life"
£29.92
Taylor & Francis The Bergsonian Mind Routledge Philosophical Minds
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Mental Action and the Conscious Mind
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Taylor & Francis Understanding Digital Events Bergson Whitehead and the Experience of the Digital Routledge Studies in Science Technology and Society
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Taylor & Francis Skepticism
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Taylor & Francis Skepticism
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Medieval Logic and Metaphysics A Modern Introduction 13 Routledge Library Editions The Medieval World
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Social Imaginary and the Metaphysical Discourse
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Taylor & Francis Ltd The Listening Self Personal Growth Social Change and the Closure of Metaphysics 4 Routledge Library Editions Metaphysics
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Taylor & Francis Reality and Value An Introduction to Metaphysics and an Essay on the Theory of Value Routledge Library Editions Metaphysics
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Taylor & Francis The Approach to Metaphysics Routledge Library Editions Metaphysics
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Taylor & Francis Metaphysics
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Taylor & Francis Methods of Metaphysics
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Taylor & Francis An Introduction to Metaphysics
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Taylor & Francis Queer Objects
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Can We Know Anything
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Can We Know Anything
Book SynopsisIn this book, Michael Huemer and Bryan Frances debate whether and how we can gain knowledge of the world outside of our own minds. Starting with opening statements, the debate moves through two rounds of replies.Frances argues that we lack knowledge because, for example, we cannot rule out the possibility that we are brains in vats being artificially stimulated in such a way as to create an illusion of living in the real world. Huemer disagrees that we need evidence against such possibilities in order to gain knowledge of the external world, maintaining instead that we are entitled to presume that things are as they appear unless and until we acquire specific grounds for thinking otherwise. The authors go on to discuss how one should think about controversial issues wherein the experts persistently disagree. Frances argues that we should generally withhold judgment about such issues or at least greatly reduce our confidence. Huemer agrees that people are often overconfidentTable of ContentsForeword 1. The Illusion of Knowledge 2. The Reality of Knowledge 3. The Skeptic’s Response to the Realist 4. The Realist’s Response to the Skeptic 5. When Will It Ever End?: Reply to Huemer’s Response 6. It Ends Here: Response to Francis’s Reply
£26.99
Taylor & Francis The Unexplained Intellect
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Is There a God
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Do We Have Free Will
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Philosophical Essays on Divine Causation
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Taylor & Francis CrossTradition Engagement in Philosophy A ConstructiveEngagement Account Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Toward a Metaphysics of Culture
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Taylor & Francis Freedom Action and Motivation in Spinozaâs Ethics
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Medieval Philosophy
Book SynopsisThis book presents a new, contemporary introduction to medieval philosophy as it was practiced in all its variety in Western Europe and the Near East. It assumes only a minimal familiarity with philosophy, the sort that an undergraduate introduction to philosophy might provide, and it is arranged topically around questions and themes that will appeal to a contemporary audience. In addition to some of the perennial questions posed by philosophers, such as Can we know anything, and if so, what?, What is the fundamental nature of reality?, and What does human flourishing consist in?, this volume looks at what medieval thinkers had to say, for instance, about our obligations towards animals and the environment, freedom of speech, and how best to organize ourselves politically. The book examines certain aspects of the thought of several well-known medieval figures, but it also introduces students to many important, yet underappreciated figures and traditions. It includTrade Review"An excellent achievement. The volume serves as a contemporary introduction both in terms of its tone, which is fresh and wonderfully free of jargon, and in terms of its material, which takes a wholly new and inspiring approach to what the medieval canon should look like."Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado, BoulderTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Science, Certainty, and Skepticism 3. The Building Blocks of Reality 4. What Are We? 5. Happiness and the Meaning of Life 6. Love Thy Neighbor 7. The Philosopher in Society 8. From Here, Where?
£33.99
Taylor & Francis The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Temporal Experience
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Taylor & Francis Ltd The Philosophy of Reenchantment
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Taylor & Francis Platos Exceptional City Love and Philosopher
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Taylor & Francis Epistemology of Modality and Philosophical Methodology
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Taylor & Francis Schelling Hegel and the Philosophy of Nature
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Taylor & Francis Do We Have a Soul
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Taylor & Francis Epistemic Uses of Imagination Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
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Taylor & Francis Ltd The Ethics of Virtual and Augmented Reality
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Taylor & Francis Ltd C. D. Broads Philosophy of Time
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Taylor & Francis Revising Fiction Fact and Faith A Philosophical Account Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Revising Fiction Fact and Faith
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Taylor & Francis Philosophy of Action from Suarez to Anscombe
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Taylor & Francis Ltd What Even Is Gender
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Taylor & Francis Ltd What Even Is Gender
Book SynopsisDebates about gender are everywhere. Is it an inner identity, a biological fact, or an oppressive system? Should we respect it or resist it?What Even Is Gender? shifts the conversation in a fresh direction, arguing that these debates rest on a shared mistake: the idea that there is one thing called gender that both sides are arguing about. The authors distinguish a range of phenomena that established vocabulary often lumps together. This sheds light on the equivocations and false dichotomies of gender talk, and how they deny many of us the tools to make our needs, experiences, and concerns intelligible to others or even to ourselves.The authors develop a conceptual toolkit that helps alleviate the harms that result from the limitations of familiar approaches. They propose a pluralistic concept of gender feels that distinguishes among our experiences of diverse facets of gendered life. They develop a flexible approach to gender categories that reflects the value Trade Review'Briggs and George blow open the "gender debate" by questioning tired distinctions and unhelpful tropes about sex, gender, and gender identity, while fashioning new, multi-dimensional lenses through which we can begin to see human beings -- trans and otherwise -- in all their bio-psycho-social complexity. Anyone looking to move past politicised point-scoring and drain-circling disputes about social ontology will benefit from reading this book, with Briggs and George as their capable guides to a more nuanced sex and gender terrain.' - Brian D. Earp, University of Oxford, UKTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. All The Feels: Against "Gender Identity" 3. Don’t Hate the Player: Traits Versus Norms 4. "Above All That": Glorifying Indifference 5. Our Princess Is In Another Castle: There Is No Essence of Womanhood 6. Conclusion. Index
£36.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Platos Exceptional City Love and Philosopher
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Explaining Morality
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Taylor & Francis C. D. Broad
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Taylor & Francis Ltd C. D. Broad Key Unpublished Writings
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Taylor & Francis Ltd Scientific Challenges to Common Sense Philosophy
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Taylor & Francis The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Skill and Expertise
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