Philosophy Books

Book SynopsisThe author provides the language, not only for understanding the suicidal mind, but for understanding oneself and the psychological needs of the suicidal individual. Presenting cases that reveal the inner workings of the suicidal mind, Shneidman offers an insight to help understand and prevent suicide.Trade ReviewFascinating * New Scientist *

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Book SynopsisThis is a book that will help readers make sense of the big issues in philosophy: Mind, Knowledge, Language, Science, Morality, Politics, Law and Metaphysics. The book aims to allow readers with no previous exposure to professional philosophy to gain an understanding of the approaches and the positions current in the field and to prepare them to read further.Trade ReviewOrganisation is this book's strong suit. Arranged around eight central concepts - mind, knowledge, language, science, morality, politics, law and metaphysics - this is as clear a horizon as anyone making le tour could wish. * Times Higher Education Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Mind ; 2. Knowledge ; 3. Language and Logic ; 4. Science ; 5. Morality ; 6. Politics ; 7. Law ; 8. Metaphysics ; 9.Philosophy ; Notes ; Index

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Book SynopsisWomen have historically been prevented from living autonomously by systematic injustice, subordination, and oppression. The lingering effects of these practices have prompted many feminists to view autonomy with suspicion. Here, Marilyn Friedman defends the ideal of feminist autonomy. In her eyes, behavior is autonomous if it accords with the wants, cares, values, or commitments that the actor has reaffirmed and is able to sustain in the face of opposition. By her account, autonomy is socially grounded yet also individualizing and sometimes socially disruptive, qualities that can be ultimately advantageous for women. Friedman applies the concept of autonomy to domains of special interest to women. She defends the importance of autonomy in romantic love, considers how social institutions should respond to women who choose to remain in abusive relationships, and argues that liberal societies should tolerate minority cultural practices that violate women''s rights so long as the women in Trade Review[a] highly readable, informed, and philosophically refined book. * John Christman, Journal of Value Inquiry *

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Book SynopsisPhilosophy has as much to do with feelings as it does with thoughts and thinking. Philosophy, accordingly, requires not only emotional sensitivity but an understanding of the emotions, not as curious but marginal psychological phenomena but as the very substance of life. In this, the second book in a series devoted to his work on the emotions, Robert Solomon presents a defense of the emotions and of sentimentality against the background of what he perceives as a long history of abuse in philosophy and social thought and art and literary criticism. The title piece reopens a classic debate about the role of sentimentality in art and literature. In subsequent chapters, Solomon discusses not only such moral sentiments as sympathy and compassion but also grief, gratitude, love, horror, and even vengeance. He also defends, with appropriate caution, the seven deadly sins. The emotions--at least, some emotions--are essential to a well-lived life. They are or can be virtues, features of the humTrade ReviewIn Defense of Sentimentality is witty, funny and suprising and a great read for philosophers and non-philosophers alike. Having a sense of humor, says solomon, is divine. The way Solomon uses a sense of humor to come to the defense of emotions not always considered in need of defense, really is divine. * Gerda Wever-Rabehl, Simon Frazer University *

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Book SynopsisThe Joy of Philosophy is a return to some of the perennial questions of philosophy--questions about the meaning of life; about death and tragedy; about the respective roles of rationality and passion in the good life; about love, compassion, and revenge; about honesty, deception, and betrayal; and about who we are and how we think about who we are. Recapturing the heart-felt confusion and excitement that originally brings us all to philosophy, internationally renowned teacher and lecturer Robert C. Solomon offers both a critique of contemporary philosophy and an invitation to engage in philosophy in a different way. He attempts to save philosophy from itself and its self-imposed diet of thin arguments and logical analysis to recover the richness and complexity of life in thought. Solomon defends the passionate life in contrast to the life of thoughtful contemplation idealized by so many philosophers, attempting to recapture the kind of philosophy that Nietzsche celebrated as a joyful Table of ContentsIntroduction: Philosophy through Thick and Thin (Being and Nothing Less) ; The Passionate Life ; The Politics of Emotion ; Justice, Sympathy, and Vengeance ; The Tragic Sense of Life ; Thinking Death in the Face: Death Fetishism, Morbid Solipsism ; Recovering Personal Identity

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Book SynopsisThe question What can justify criminal punishment ? becomes especially insistent at times, like our own, of penal crisis, when serious doubts are raised not only about the justice or efficacy of particular modes of punishment, but about the very legitimacy of the whole penal system. Recent theorizing about punishment offers a variety of answers to that question-answers that try to make plausible sense of the idea that punishment is justified as being deserved for past crimes; answers that try to identify some beneficial consequences in terms of which punishment might be justified; as well as abolitionist answers telling us that we should seek to abolish, rather than to justify, criminal punishment. This book begins with a critical survey of recent trends in penal theory, but goes on to develop an original account (based on Duff''s earlier Trials and Punishments) of criminal punishment as a mode of moral communication, aimed at inducing repentance, reform, and reconciliation through repTrade Review"R.A. Duff's "Punishment, Communication and Community" is a closely reasoned case for a distinctive normative justification of punishment based on mediation and probation."--The Law and Politics Book Review, August 2001"Duff rejects the ultimate exclusionary penalty (capital punishment) for even the most dangerous of criminals and crimes; a reading of his reasons for doing so is a skillful journey through the relevant current literature."--Choice, October 2001"Punishment, Communication, and Community is a masterful, comprehensive analysis of the justification of punishment in general and a landmark contribution to the communicative theory of state punishment that combines theoretical rigor, practical recommendations and humane common sense. Few will entirely agree with [the book], but all will be challenged. Duff's innovative work is required reading for criminal law theorists and policy makers."--Stephen J. Morse, University of Pennsylvania Law School"In this masterly work, Professor Duff offers a penetrating assessment of recent work on penal philosophy and then develops his own communicative theory of punishment, which turns on ideas of community, penance and reconciliation. His account emphasizes the value of proportionate punishments designed to persuade offenders to face up to the implications of their crimes as public wrongs. Elegant in its philosophical argument and practical in its discussion of contemporary sentencing, this book sets the highest standards for work in this vital area of public policy at the start of a new millennium."--Andrew J. Ashworth, University of Oxford"Antony Duff has in recent years established himself as one of our foremost philosophers of punishment, arguing for a communicative view of justified punishment that sees it as a form of secular penance . In this book, he offers his fullest account of this theory to date. His approach, if generally adopted, would require a transformation of many of our existing practices of state punishment. This is a deep and challenging volume: no-one who is seriously concerned with the nature of and justification for state punishment can afford to neglect its arguments."--Anthony Bottoms, Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University"A compelling antidote and challenge to death penalty advocates who believe that the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh for killing 164 people will bring consolation to survivors and serve justice."--Choice"Duff rejects the ultimate exclusionary penalty (capital punishment) for even the most dangerous of criminals and crimes; a reading of his reasons for doing so is a skillful journey through the relevant current literature" - -CHOICE"This new book is a major contribution to our understanding of criminal justice and its contemporary politics. For every word in the book that gives succour to today's alarming trends in criminal justice policy, there are ten more that expose cant, ignorance, and confusion. For a philosophical work to engage so closely with current politics and practice without sacrificing philosophical quality is a rare achievement indeed." --John Gardner Punishment and Society

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Book SynopsisWhat place does consciousness have in the natural world? If we reject materialism, could there even be a credible alternative? In A Place for Consciousness, Rosenberg addresses the causal role of consciousness in the world from an anti-physicalist perspective. Introducing a new paradigm called Liberal Naturalism, he offers a profound framework that proposes a deep link between consciousness and causation. Using this framework, he undercuts the logic of the historical debate and deflates the question of causality that physicalists have long been posing to anti-physicalists. Ultimately, he gives consciousness a causally important role without supposing either that it is physical or that it interacts with the physical.Trade ReviewThe complexity and originality of Rosenberg's book * Dean W. Zimmerman, Times Literary Supplement *He proposes an original theory of causation * Dean W. Zimmerman, Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisIn Inventing Temperature, Chang takes a historical and philosophical approach to examine how scientists were able to use scientific method to test the reliability of thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of thermometers; and how they came to measure the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves. Chang discusses simple epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, which in turn lead to more complex issues about the solutions that were developed.Trade Reviewthe most important book on this subject since Bridgman's classic work of 1927... Chang's book should become mandatory reading for anyone who wants to pursue the problem of measurement further. * Donald Gillies, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science *[A] fascinating study * David Knight, BJHS, Vol. 39/4 *Table of ContentsChronology: 1: Keeping the Fixed Points Fixed 2: Spirit, Air, and Quicksilver 3: To Go Beyond 4: Theory, Measurement, and Absolute Temperature 5: Measurement, Justification, and Scientific Progress

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Book SynopsisDesires lead to actions, influence feelings, and determine what counts as a reward. Recent empirical evidence shows that these three aspects of desire stem from a common biological origin. Informed by contemporary science as much as by the philosophical tradition, Three Faces of Desire reveals this common foundation and builds a striking new philosophical theory of desire that puts desire''s neglected face-reward-at its core. Schroeder delves into the way that actions and feelings are produced in the brain, arguing that a distinctive system is responsible for promoting action, on the one hand, and causing feelings of pleasure and displeasure, on the other. This system, the brain''s reward system, is the causal origin of both action and feeling, and is the key to understanding the nature of desire.Trade ReviewA refreshing reexamination of desire theoryThree Faces of Desire introduces a rich body of neuroscientific data that has been neglected by philosophy of mind for some time, but because of the use Schroeder has made of it, it is doubtful that this neglect will persist for long. * Anthony Landreth, Philosophical Psychology *

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Book SynopsisConscious experience presents a deep puzzle. On the one hand, a fairly robust materialism must be true in order to explain how it is that conscious events causally interact with non-conscious, physical events. On the other hand, we cannot explain how physical phenomena give rise to conscious experience.In this wide-ranging study, Joseph Levine explores both sides of the mind-body dilemma, presenting the first book-length treatment of his highly influential ideas on the ''explanatory gap'', the fact that we can''t explain the nature of phenomenal experience in terms of its physical realization. He presents a careful argument that there is such a gap, and, after providing intriguing analyses of virtually all existing theories of consciousness, shows that recent attempts to close it fall short of the mark. Levine concludes that in the foreseeable future consciousness will remain a mystery.Trade ReviewThe American philosopher Joseph Levine explores the 'explanatory gap' between physical sciences and consciousness: conscious phenomena cannot be explained in terms of material phenomena. Levine surveys a number of modern theories of consciousness and finds them inconclusive. In Levine's opinion, that gap will not be filled any time soon. * Piero Scaruffi, Thymos.com *

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Book SynopsisHuman beings are active agents who can think. To understand how thought serves action requires understanding how people conceive of the relation between cause and effect, that is, between action and outcome.In cognitive terms, the question becomes one of how people construct and reason with the causal models we use to represent our world. A revolution is occuring in how statisticians, philosophers, and computer scientists answer this question. These fields have ushered in new insights about causal models by thinking about how to represent causal structure mathematically, in a framework that uses graphs and probability theory to develop what are called ''causal Bayesian networks''. The framework starts with the idea that the purpose of causal structure is to understand and predict the effects of intervention: How does intervening on one thing affect other things? This question is not merely about probability (or logic), but about action. The framework offers a new understanding of mind:Trade Review"Steven Sloman's Causal Models is the first broadly accessible book to survey an important and growing field of cognitive research: how people understand the causal structure of their world, and the role of causal understanding in all aspects of thinking, perceiving and acting. No difficult technical concepts are assumed. Important unifying themes are explained clearly and illustrated with numerous examples. It will provide an excellent entry into this field for students, researchers, or interested general readers." --Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "In the last 15 years, there has been a quiet revolution in how we model, understand, and learn about the causal structure of the world. Having started in philosophy and computer science, but now vital in psychology and statistics, the causal revolution has been slowed by the conspicuous absence of a truly readable book-length introduction. Fortunately, Steve Sloman has now written one. In a book that includes all the key ideas behind causal modeling but none of the tedious technical details, hundreds of worked examples ranging from marketing to arithmetic, and dozens of applications ranging from how we categorize the world to how we might be evolved to learn about its causal structure, Sloman has made a difficult subject exciting and simple." --Richard Scheines, Professor of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University "The scientific analysis of causal systems has become much more sophisticated with recent developments in computer science, statistics, and philosophy during the past decade. For the first time, we have available a comprehensive formal language in which to represent complex causal systems and which can be used to define normative solutions to causal inference and judgment problems. Steven Sloman's book makes these important developments easily accessible to the reader, as well as presenting many of his own exciting applications of these new ideas in behavioral studies of learning and judging causal relationships. This well-written book is full of profound insights and fascinating results. Anyone who wants to know what's going on at the cutting edge of cognitive science should read it." --Reid Hastie, Professor of Behavioral Science, University of Chicago "The field of Bayesian causal models is becoming increasingly important for theory building in cognitive science. This book provides an lively and lucid introduction to the core concepts, and weaves them together with the latest research on causality and related topics from the cognitive sciences. Elegant and entertaining." --Nick Chater, Director of the Institute for Applied Cognitive Science and Professor of Psychology, University of Warwick "Sloman has written an accessible, popular-level book that will serve as a useful general introduction to the tricky and complex issues involved in understanding causality and its role in cognitive processing. For people who are unfamiliar with the issues and the research involved, this is a good starting point, although parts may require thoughtful rereadings. For people who are generally familiar with the issues but not the recent research or theoretical conceptions (e.g., the use of counterfactuals), this book can serve as a useful guide to update one's knowledge. People who are actively working in this area will probably find this book a quick and enjoyable read."--Michael Palij, PsycCRITIQUES "Steven Sloman's Causal Models is the first broadly accessible book to survey an important and growing field of cognitive research: how people understand the causal structure of their world, and the role of causal understanding in all aspects of thinking, perceiving and acting. No difficult technical concepts are assumed. Important unifying themes are explained clearly and illustrated with numerous examples. It will provide an excellent entry into this field for students, researchers, or interested general readers." --Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "In the last 15 years, there has been a quiet revolution in how we model, understand, and learn about the causal structure of the world. Having started in philosophy and computer science, but now vital in psychology and statistics, the causal revolution has been slowed by the conspicuous absence of a truly readable book-length introduction. Fortunately, Steve Sloman has now written one. In a book that includes all the key ideas behind causal modeling but none of the tedious technical details, hundreds of worked examples ranging from marketing to arithmetic, and dozens of applications ranging from how we categorize the world to how we might be evolved to learn about its causal structure, Sloman has made a difficult subject exciting and simple." --Richard Scheines, Professor of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University "The scientific analysis of causal systems has become much more sophisticated with recent developments in computer science, statistics, and philosophy during the past decade. For the first time, we have available a comprehensive formal language in which to represent complex causal systems and which can be used to define normative solutions to causal inference and judgment problems. Steven Sloman's book makes these important developments easily accessible to the reader, as well as presenting many of his own exciting applications of these new ideas in behavioral studies of learning and judging causal relationships. This well-written book is full of profound insights and fascinating results. Anyone who wants to know what's going on at the cutting edge of cognitive science should read it." --Reid Hastie, Professor of Behavioral Science, University of Chicago "The field of Bayesian causal models is becoming increasingly important for theory building in cognitive science. This book provides an lively and lucid introduction to the core concepts, and weaves them together with the latest research on causality and related topics from the cognitive sciences. Elegant and entertaining." --Nick Chater, Director of the Institute for Applied Cognitive Science and Professor of Psychology, University of Warwick "Sloman has written an accessible, popular-level book that will serve as a useful general introduction to the tricky and complex issues involved in understanding causality and its role in cognitive processing. For people who are unfamiliar with the issues and the research involved, this is a good starting point, although parts may require thoughtful rereadings. For people who are generally familiar with the issues but not the recent research or theoretical conceptions (e.g., the use of counterfactuals), this book can serve as a useful guide to update one's knowledge. People who are actively working in this area will probably find this book a quick and enjoyable read."--Michael Palij, PsycCRITIQUESTable of ContentsPART 1: THE THEORY; PART 2: EVIDENCE AND APPLICATION

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Book SynopsisWoodward''s long awaited book is an attempt to construct a comprehensive account of causation explanation that applies to a wide variety of causal and explanatory claims in different areas of science and everyday life. The book engages some of the relevant literature from other disciplines, as Woodward weaves together examples, counterexamples, criticisms, defenses, objections, and replies into a convincing defense of the core of his theory, which is that we can analyze causation by appeal to the notion of manipulation.Trade ReviewThe discussions are detailed and technical, but not such as to lead us to lose sight of the big picture; his treatment is illuminating... As other reviewers have stated, Woodward's book is outstanding. * James G. Murphy, Milltown Studies *this is a splendid book. It is beautifully and clearly written; and in countless ways sheds a flood of light on a range of topics to do with causation and explanation. It represents the most significant and substantial philosophical contribution to the study of these concepts in recent years. Reading and studying this book will be obligatory for everyone whose work bears directly or indirectly on the topics of causation and explanation. * Peter Menzies, Mind *Table of Contents1: Introduction and Preview 2: Causation and Manipulation 3: Interventions, Agency, and Counterfactuals 4: Causal Explanation: Background and Criticism 5: A Counterfactual Theory of Causal Explanation 6: Invariance 7: Causal Interpretation in Structural Models 8: The Causal Mechanical and Unificationist Models of Explanation

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Book SynopsisThis is a comprehensive resource of original essays by leading thinkers exploring the newly emerging inter-disciplinary field of the philosophy of psychiatry. The contributors aim to define this exciting field and to highlight the philosophical assumptions and issues that underlie psychiatric theory and practice, the category of mental disorder, and rationales for its social, clinical and legal treatment.As a branch of medicine and a healing practice, psychiatry relies on presuppositions that are deeply and unavoidably philosophical. Conceptions of rationality, personhood and autonomy frame our understanding and treatment of mental disorder. Philosophical questions of evidence, reality, truth, science, and values give meaning to each of the social institutions and practices concerned with mental health care. The psyche, the mind and its relation to the body, subjectivity and consciousness, personal identity and character, thought, will, memory, and emotions are equally the stuff of traTrade Review"The publication of this book is a major event in the ongoing development of the field....a significant accomplishment...it simultaneously represents, announces, and consolidates the arrival of an exciting new field."--Metapsychology Online Book Reviews"Highly recommended."--ChoiceTable of ContentsPART I - PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND NORMALCY ; PART 2 - EPISTEMOLOGY OF PRACTICE ; PART 3 - NORMS, VALUES AND ETHICS ; PART 4 - THEORETICAL MODELS ; PART 5 - CIRCUMSCRIBING MENTAL DISORDER

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Book SynopsisThe author of the highly popular book Think, which Time magazine hailed as the one book every smart person should read to understand, and even enjoy, the key questions of philosophy, Simon Blackburn is that rara avis--an eminent thinker who is able to explain philosophy to the general reader. Now Blackburn offers a tour de force exploration of what he calls the most exciting and engaging issue in the whole of philosophy--the age-old war over truth. The front lines of this war are well defined. On one side are those who believe in plain, unvarnished facts, rock-solid truths that can be found through reason and objectivity--that science leads to truth, for instance. Their opponents mock this idea. They see the dark forces of language, culture, power, gender, class, ideology and desire--all subverting our perceptions of the world, and clouding our judgement with false notions of absolute truth. Beginning with an early skirmish in the war--when Socrates confronted the sophists in ancient ATrade ReviewBlackburn's lively new book 'Truth: A Guide' will challenge and surprise you.... The great achievement of 'Truth' is to encapsulate the major lines of argument on this intractable question within the covers of a book you can read in a day or two. His chapter on Nietzsche, the fountainhead of modern philosophy and the patron saint of relativism, is worth the price of admission by itself. * Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com *Admirably sketching the battle lines currently staked out over the idea of objective truth, [Blackburn] makes his subject lively and accessible even as he parts some of its deepest waters.... Blackburn considers truth 'the most exciting and engaging issue in the whole of philosophy,' and, with wit and erudition, he succeeds in proving that point. * Publishers Weekly *Fluid, highly literate, and deeply informed.... Highly recommended for academic philosophy and literature collections. * Library Journal *The pleasure of reading this beautifully written and crafted book is almost sensual, so complete does each sentence seem in its witty unfolding. Blackburn takes up the knottiest philosophical issues * truth, justice, belief, evidence, interpretationand without dissolving the knots he carefully undoes them, and then, in some cases, reties them. A wonderful embracing tour through the minefield of philosophical controversy that will inform the novice and delight the afficionado.Stanley Fish *Gently leads the reader on a guided tour of one simple question * whether there is a universally applicable set of data that can be called capital-T 'Truth'and its infinite complications.Seattle Times *If you're annoyed, even incensed, at the relativism and ironic nihilism of the youth (or their free-thinking professors), and you're looking for a vicarious voice to denounce the abject postmodern menace and stand up for Western rationalism, this could be the book for you. * Barry Allen, The Globe and Mail *Between the Scylla of relativism and the Charybdis of absolutism, Simon Blackburn does not merely navigate, but pleasure-sails, visiting and appreciating each. Whether you are appalled by postmodernism, incensed by smug scientism, or simply 'perplexed,' you'll find Blackburn's 'guide' edifying. Learn here what truth is, why it is so elusive, and what hope there is for human knowledge. * Louise Antony, Professor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University *Table of ContentsPREFACE ; INTRODUCTION ; CHAPTER 1: FAITH, BELIEF AND REASON ; 1. Clifford's Duties ; 2. Fiction and MythJames ; 4. Kinds of Animation ; CHAPTER 2: MAN THE MEASURE ; 1. Turning the Tables: the Recoil Argument ; 2. Modern Judo ; 3. The Variation of Subjectives ; 4. The Moving Bull's-eye ; 5. Doing it Ourselves ; CHAPTER 3: ISHMAEL'S PROBLEM AND THE DELIGHTS OF KEEPING QUIET ; 1. Who Tell the Tale? ; 2. A Gestalt Switch ; 3. You Tell Me, or Down with Pilate ; 4. Moral Relativism ; 5. Man the Measurer ; 6. Summary ; CHAPTER 4: NIETZCHE: THE ARCH DEBUNKER ; 1. Facts or Interpretations? ; 2. Twilight of the Idols ; 3. Perspectivism ; 4. Adequate Words ; 5. Heraclitus and the Flux ; 6. The Darwinian Element ; CHAPTER 5: THE POSSIBILITY OF PHILOSOPHY ; 1. Getting Puzzled ; 2. Four Responses ; 3. Eliminativism ; 4. Realism ; 5. Deconstructing the Issue ; 6. The Constructivist Corner ; 7. The Example of Wittgenstein ; CHAPTER 6: OBSERVATION AND TRUTH: FROM LOCKE TO RORTY ; 1. Paradise Lost ; 2. First Impressions ; 3. Holism ; 4. Davidson's Mantle ; 5. Rorty's Talking World ; 6. Keeping our Feet on the Ground ; 7. Interlude: Law, Tennis, and the Coffee-house ; 8. A Political Message ; CHAPTER 7: REALISM AS SCIENCE; REALISM ABOUT SCIENCE ; 1. No Miracles ; 2. Science Red in Tooth and Claw ; 3. Explaining from Within ; 4. Animation and Belief Again ; 5. Underdetermination ; CHAPTER 8: HISTORIANS AND OTHERS ; 1. Conceptual Schemes ; 2. Mind Reading ; 3. Mirroring ; 4. Infirmities ; 5. Collectives and their Histories ; 6. Peace Breaks Out ; NOTES ; INDEX

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Trade ReviewThis is an excellent and comprehensive collection of classic and contemporary sources on happiness. It covers a number of central questions: How should we define happiness? How can we attain happiness? What role does it play in human existence? and What is the relation between happiness and morality? The collection would work well in a wide range of undergraduate philosophy courses. * Jeffrey Flynn, Middlebury College *A strength of the volume is the fantastic historical selections the coeditors have chosen. In terms of the history of philosophical and theological thinking about happiness in the West, the editors have picked excellent, provocative, and thoughtful selections. * Sandra L. Shapshay, Indiana University, Bloomington *A very timely and important contribution for college and university philosophy instructors. * David Elliott, University of Regina *Table of ContentsPART ONE. HISTORICAL SOURCES; PART II. CONTEMPORARY THEORIES; A. HAPPINESS AS PLEASURE; B. HAPPINESS AS SATISFACTION; C. HAPPINESS AS MORE THAN SATISFACTION; D. HAPPINESS AND VIRTUE

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Book SynopsisMele''s ultimate purpose in this book is to help readers think more clearly about free will. He identifies and makes vivid the most important conceptual obstacles to justified belief in the existence of free will and meets them head on. Mele clarifies the central issue in the philosophical debate about free will and moral responsibility, criticizes various influential contemporary theories about free will, and develops two overlapping conceptions of free will - one for readers who are convinced that free will is incompatible with determinism (incompatibilists), and the other for readers who are convinced of the opposite (compatibilists). Mele''s theory offers an original perspective on an important problem and will garner the attention of anyone interested in the debate on free will.Trade ReviewThe book is well-written and meticulously argued, and positions are carefully defined and presented. Mele's writing is a model of analytical exposition. And as always, Mele is the master of the philosophical thought experiment, and manages to make convincing positions where others have feared to tread (or indeed would have never thought it were possible to tread). * Saul Smilansky, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Mele's Free Will and Luck is well written and tightly argued. It will be a very important contribution to the literature on free will. * Randolph Clarke, Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia *This is a splendid book. It features several new and significant contributions to the debate, and it develops existing arguments in creative and surprising ways. Overall, it constitutes a genuine advance in our understanding of free will and moral responsibility. It is sure to be widely read and discussed. * Derk Pereboom, Department of Philosophy, University of Vermont *Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Free Will and Neuroscience ; 3. Libertarianism, Luck, and Control ; 4. Frankfurt-style Cases, Luck, and Soft Libertarianism ; 5. A Daring Soft Libertarian Response to Present Luck ; 6. Compatibilism: Objections and Replies ; 7. My Compatibilist Proposal: Objections and Replies ; 8. Conclusion ; References ; Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume collects essays by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with expertise in analytic philosophy and logic, as well as deep interest in Buddhist philosophy. Others have distinguished scholarly records in Buddhist Studies with strong interests in analytic philosophy and logic. All are committed to the enterprise of cross-cultural philosophy and to bringing the insights and techniques of each tradition to bear in order to illuminate problems and ideas of the other. These essays address a broad range of topics in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, and demonstrate the fecundity of the interaction between the Buddhist and Western philosophical and logical traditions.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Zen and the Unsayable ; 2. Wittgenstein and Zen Buddhism: One Practice, No Dogma ; 3. The No-Thesis View: Making Sense of Verse 29 of Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani ; 4. Why the Buddha Never Uttered a Word ; 5. Is Reductionism Expressible? ; 6. Mountains Are Just Mountains ; 7. How Do Madhyamikas Think? Notes on Jay Garfield, Graham Priest, and Paraconsistency ; 8. A Dharmakirtian Critique of Nagarjunians ; 9. Would It Matter All That Much If There Were No Selves? ; 10. Svasa?vitti as Methodological Solipsism: "Narrow Content" and the Problem of Intentionality in Buddhist Philosophy of Mind ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAnxiety looms large in historical works of philosophy and psychology. It is an affect, philosopher Bettina Bergo argues, subtler and more persistent than our emotions, and points toward the intersection of embodiment and cognition. While scholars who focus on the work of luminaries as Freud, Levinas, or Kant often study this theme in individual works, they seldom draw out the deep and significant connections between various approaches to anxiety. This volume provides a sweeping study of the uncanny career of anxiety in nineteenth and twentieth century European thought. Anxiety threads itself through European intellectual life, beginning in receptions of Kant''s transcendental philosophy and running into Levinas'' phenomenology; it is a core theme in Schelling, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. As a symptom of an interrogation that strove to take form in European intellectual culture, Angst passes through Schelling''s romanticism into Schopenhauer''s metaphysical vitalism, beforTrade Review...what stands out is [Bergo's] capacity to inflect familiar material with uncanny resonances, without much editorial prodding. The Nietzsche we encounter here, for example, is one concerned with 'two pairs of anxiety': embodied pathos and reactive resentment, as well as mourning the death of God and rendering it the 'ultimate transvaluation' through eternal recurrence. The result is a demystified, non-reductive picture of Nietzsche that is theologically unavoidable and plausibly resonant with current conceptions of emergent consciousness. Later in the book, it is refreshing to see Husserl's work on time consciousness and passive synthesis described so clearly and with such a suggestive eye toward the theme of affect. In Bergo's account, we get a convincing sense both of his setting a 'new formal groundwork for psychology,' and of his role as a target for subsequent deformalizing dismantlings. * Continental Philosophy Review *Bergo (Univ. of Montreal) offers a wide-ranging but by no means superficial examination of the present-day notion of anxiety and its philosophical context. The philosophical story can be said to have begun with Kant's transcendental project as a response to the inadequacies of both empiricism and rationalism, but it travels through many major European philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Bergo shows the sometimes surprising connections between and among Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Levinas, and other thinkers. There are also several side trips to scientists such as Darwin, Ekman, and Freud—as anxiety itself turns out to lie somewhere between human cognition and human emotion, between mind and body. Anxiety might at first appear to play a minor role in philosophy, but Bergo shows that it can be an important key....Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * CHOICE *This is a remarkably detailed study, and unlike many of the large and avowed exhaustive histories of philosophy, this one makes no claim to such. Bettina Bergo does something wonderfully creative. Instead of advancing a genealogy of anxiety, she makes a double move of examining the, in fact, fear of power, the desire for liberty without responsibility, and in doing so examines the conundrums of evasion. The work is valuable as a performance of its own philosophical concerns, and for scholars interested in fresh readings of canonical figures of Euromodern continental philosophy. This is a beautifully written, extraordinarily well-researched work that should generate a stir not only among scholars researching on the history of Euromodern philosophy, but also those interested in a rich understanding of subjectivity beyond pronouncements of eradication of its mark--in a word, 'the' subject.' * Lewis Gordon, Professor and Department Head of Philosophy, University of Connecticut *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Ambiguities of Anxiety: Select History of a Theme in 19th century and 20th Century Philosophy and Psychology Chapter 1. The New Philosophy: Kant's Transcendental Revolution and the Fate of Emotions in German Philosophy Excursus I. From Kant to Hegel via Philippe Pinel Chapter 2. Anxiety, Freedom, and Evil: Schelling and Groundless Life Chapter 3. The Dialectics of Affect: Anxiety and Despair in Kierkegaard Excursus II. The Universality of Emotions? Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) Chapter 4. Schopenhauer, Life, and the Affects of the Noumenal Chapter 5. Nietzsche and the Intensification of the Dialectic of Anxiety: Mourning and Transvaluation Chapter 6. Freud and the Three Anxieties Excursus III: Husserl: The Problem of Affective Forces, Einfühlung, and a Phenomenological Un-conscious Chapter 7. Heidegger I: Angst in Heidegger's Fundamental Ontology: The Debts to Husserl and Kierkegaard Chapter 8. Heidegger II Angst, the Temporalization of Dasein, and the Temporality of "Life" Chapter 9. Emmanuel Levinas and the Anxiety of Intersubjective Origins General Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis is a new translation of the first volume of Hegel's lectures on the History of Philosophy and includes material from lecture notes taken by Hegel's pupils in 1923-4, 1925-6, and 1927-28.

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Book SynopsisSteven Nadler presents a collection of essays on the problem of causation in seventeenth-century philosophy. Occasionalism is the doctrine, held by a number of early modern Cartesian thinkers, that created substances are devoid of any true causal powers, and that God is the only real causal agent in the universe. All natural phenomena have God as their direct and immediate cause, with natural things and their states serving only as occasions for God to act. Rather than being merely an ad hoc, deus ex machina response to the mind-body problem bequeathed by Descartes to his followers, as it has often been portrayed in the past, occasionalism is in fact a full-blooded, complex and philosophically interesting account of causal relations. These essays examine the philosophical, scientific, theological and religious themes and arguments of occasionalism, as well as its roots in medieval views on God and causality.Trade Reviewa fine work of scholarship. * Susan Peppers Bates, Philosophy in Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Acknowledgements ; Abbreviations ; 1. Occasionalism and the Mind-Body Problem ; 2. Descartes and Occasional Causation ; 3. Occasionalism and General Will in Malebranche ; 4. Postscript to "Occasionalism and General Will in Malebranche" ; 5. Knowledge, Volitional Agency and Causation in Malebranche and Geulincx ; 6. Dualism and Occasionalism: Arnauld and the Development of Cartesian Metaphysics ; 7. The Occasionalism of Louis de la Forge ; 8. Louis de la Forge and the Development of Occasionalism: Continuous Creation and the Activity of the Soul ; 9. Cordemoy and Occasionalism ; 10. 'No Necessary Connection': The Medieval Roots of the Occasionalist Roots of Hume ; 11. Choosing a Theodicy: The Leibniz-Malebranche-Arnauld Connection

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Book SynopsisThe idea of a philosophy of palliative care emerged with Cicely Saunders'' vision for ''a good death'', and was developed further with the WHO definition of palliative care. It is now being applied not only to cancer patients, but to all patients in end of life situations. As this ''palliative care approach'' advances, it is important to pause and comment on its effectiveness. It is a philosophy of patient care, and is therefore open to critique and evaluation.Using the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, 3rd edition as their basic reference, Randall and Downie present their argument that the palliative care approach has become too busy and over-professionalised, and that it therefore has significant weaknesses. They examine the framework of the specialty - quality of life, autonomy, dignity, patient-centredness, and the priority assigned to relatives in the remit of care - and the moral problems associated with implementing such a philosophy. The resource implications of various hTrade ReviewI think it is timely that we re-examine what it is that we do, which is what this interesting and thought-provoking book does. * Roger Woodruff, Director of Palliative Care, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia *...the work is honest and realistic. The authors define, acknowledge and justify the limits of what is possible and desirable in the relationship between doctors, other care workers, patients and families in palliative care. I believe it is a product of their intellectual rigour combined with deep and long immersion in the practical realities of the field...[and is] the most important achievement of their work; it is enlightening, shows proper humility and lays waste to the lofty arrogance of the various definitions,'philosophies' and 'position statements' that are generated by some large and powerful institutions. This book has my wholehearted recommendation. * S.C. Allen, The Royal Bournemouth Hospital *Within a slim and readable 226 pages, they expose a significant number of basic inconsistencies and contradictions that they find in the currently accepted 'norms' or the speciality. But rather than leave it at that somewhat negative position, they also defend the achievements of the speciality and proceed to record the positive parts of the current situation. Finally, they present their case for a new philosophical statement to underpin the speciality as it adapts to work in the medical system of the 21st century...an excellent and easily accessible text which I suspect will be referred to a great deal in debates and discussions about the future of Palliative Care. * Oncology News, Vol. 1, Issue 2 *It was/is often stated in book reviews that "this book should on every 's bookshelf". Well, I believe that this book should be in every hospice library bookshelf. It is asking important questions to every palliative care physician and clinician of whatever profession. As a result of reading this book they will be better informed and regard palliative care in a better way. Although the book is a critique it does highlight (at least to me) why palliative care is an essential component of any healthcare set up. * BMA Medical Book Competition 2007 *Table of Contents1. Roots, traditions and philosophy ; 2. Quality of life ; 3. Autonomy, dignity, respect and the patient centred approach ; 4. Relatives ; 5. Control of symptoms and prolongation of life ; 6. Resuscitation and advance statements ; 7. Assessment and treatment of psychosocial and spiritual problems ; 8. Resource allocation ; 9. Critique and reconstruction: some suggestions for a better way

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Book SynopsisJohn Hawthorne and David Manley present an original treatment of the semantic phenomenon of reference and the cognitive phenomenon of singular thought. In Part I, they argue against the idea that either is tied to a special relation of causal or epistemic acquaintance. Part II challenges the alleged semantic rift between definite and indefinite descriptions on the one hand, and names and demonstratives on the other--a division that has been motivated in part by appeals to considerations of acquaintance. Drawing on recent work in linguistics and philosophical semantics, Hawthorne and Manley explore a more unified account of all four types of expression according to which none of them paradigmatically fits the profile of a referential term. On the preferred framework put forward in The Reference Book, all four types of expression involve existential quantification but admit of uses that exhibit many of the traits associated with reference--a phenomenon that is due to the presence of whatTrade Review'John Hawthorne and David Manley have two main objectives in this excellent book. The first is to demolish the common assumption, following Bertrand Russell, that some kind of acquaintance is required for both (singular) reference and singular thought. The second is to establish a semantic uniformity among four kinds of noun phrases - specific indefinite descriptions, definite descriptions, demonstratives, and proper names ... a wonderful book. The authors' writing style is lively . . . readable, and clear, and their very careful consideration of all sides of every issue should leave readers with a whole new appreciation of the complexity of those issues, and a sense that many of their automatic assumptions about the functioning of noun phrases in English (and most likely other languages as well) need to be revised.' * Barbara Abbott, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsPART I: AGAINST ACQUAINTANCE; PART II: BEYOND ACQUAINTANCE

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Book SynopsisProcess approaches to organization studies focus on flow, activities, and evolution, understanding organizations and organizing as processes in the making. They stand in contrast to positivist approaches that see organizations and phenomena as fixed, static, and measurable. Process approaches draw on a range of ideas and philosophies. The Handbook examines 34 philosophers and social theorists, both those commonly linked to process thinking, such as Whitehead, Bergson and James, and those that are not as often addressed from a process perspective such as Dilthey and Tarde. Each chapter addresses the background and context of this thinker, their work (with a focus on the processual elements), and the potential contribution to organization and management research. For students and scholars in the field of Organization Studies this book is an entry point into the work of philosophical thinkers and social theorists for whom the world is far from being a solid place.Table of Contents1. Process is how process does ; 2. Laozi's Daodejing (6th century BC) ; 3. Heraclitus (540-480 BC) ; 4. Confucius (551-479 BC) ; 5. Zhuang Zi ; 6. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) ; 7. Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) ; 8. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) ; 9. Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) ; 10. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) ; 11. William James (1842- 1910) ; 12. Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) ; 13. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) ; 14. Henri Bergson (1859-1941) ; 15. John Dewey (1859-1952) ; 16. Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) ; 17. George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) ; 18. Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945) ; 19. Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1952) ; 20. Martin Heidegger (1889 - 1976) ; 21. Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) ; 22. Jacques-Marie-Emile Lacan (1901-1981) ; 23. Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) ; 24. Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) ; 25. Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) ; 26. Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908 - 1961) ; 27. Arne Naess (1912 2009) ; 28. Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) ; 29. Harold Garfinkel (1917-2011) ; 30. George Spencer Brown (1923b) ; 31. Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) ; 32. Michel Foucault (1926-1984) ; 33. Luce Irigaray (1930b) ; 34. Michel Serres (1930b) ; 35. Peter Sloterdijk (1947b) ; 36. Process and Reality

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Book SynopsisIntelligent Virtue presents a distinctive new account of virtue and happiness as central ethical ideas. Annas argues that exercising a virtue involves practical reasoning of a kind which can illuminatingly be compared to the kind of reasoning we find in someone exercising a practical skill. Rather than asking at the start how virtues relate to rules, principles, maximizing, or a final end, we should look at the way in which the acquisition and exercise of virtue can be seen to be in many ways like the acquisition and exercise of more mundane activities, such as farming, building or playing the piano. This helps us to see virtue as part of an agent''s happiness or flourishing, and as constituting (wholly, or in part) that happiness. We are offered a better understanding of the relation between virtue as an ideal and virtue in everyday life, and the relation between being virtuous and doing the right thing.Trade ReviewIntelligent Virtue is engaging, stimulating, and suggestive. Anyone interested in eudaimonist virtue approaches to ethics will be rewarded by giving it a careful readespecially critics, whose arguments against such approaches are often off-target. A careful, attentive, and sympathetic read of Intelligent Virtue will not only be rewarding for its own sake, but will help critics formulate more appropriate criticisms of eudaimonist virtue approaches. * Anne Baril, Mind *written with such lucid simplicity that any reader of the TLS who has been sufficiently interested to read this far should find it enjoyable, instructive and inspiring * Rosalind Hursthouse, Times Literary Supplement *an attractive account both of what virtue is and how it is connected to happiness and the good. The Aristotelian picture Annas provides is appealing in its own right, and because of its clarity and accessibility is also especially useful as an introduction to virtue and eudaimonism for those who teach about ethics * Erica Lucast Stonestreet, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *With direct and simple prose, and a refreshingly unpretentious tone ... the connections Annas forges between virtue and happiness (eudaimonia) are fascinating ... Intelligent Virtue is all the more worth reading precisely because it does invite us to engage in a critical dialogue with the themes and ideas it proffers. Let us then recline in comfort, open a bottle of fine Italian and be part of the conversation. Bene Vita! * Brian K. Cameron, Philosophy in Review *essential reading for anyone interested in defending (or criticizing) eudaimonist, virtue-centered ethical theories ... is sure to set the agenda for the development of such theories in the years to come. ... Intelligent Virtue is engaging, stimulating, and suggestive. Anyone interested in eudaimonist virtue apporaches to ethics will be rewarded by giving it a careful read - especially critics, whose arguments against such approaches are often off-target. A careful, attentive, and sympathetic read of Intelligent Virtue will not only be rewarding for its own sake, but will help critics formulate more appropriate criticisms of eudaimonist virtue approaches. * Anne Baril, Mind *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Virtue, Character, and Disposition ; 3. Skilled and Virtuous Action ; 4. The Scope of Virtue ; 5. Virtue and Enjoyment ; 6. Virtues and the Unity of Virtue ; 7. Virtue and Goodness ; 8. Living Happily ; 9. Living Virtuously, Living Happily ; 10. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisGrounding Concepts tackles the issue of arithmetical knowledge, developing a new position which respects three intuitions which have appeared impossible to satisfy simultaneously: a priorism, mind-independence realism, and empiricism.Drawing on a wide range of philosophical influences, but avoiding unnecessary technicality, a view is developed whereby arithmetic can be known through the examination of empirically grounded concepts. These are concepts which, owing to their relationship to sensory input, are non-accidentally accurate representations of the mind-independent world. Examination of such concepts is an armchair activity, but enables us to recover information which has been encoded in the way our concepts represent. Emphasis on the key role of the senses in securing this coding relationship means that the view respects empiricism, but without undermining the mind-independence of arithmetic or the fact that it is knowable by means of a special armchair method called conceptual Trade ReviewAnyone with the slightest interest in the nature of mathematics should give [Jenkins] serious study. * James Robert Brown and James Davies. Philosophical Quarterly *offers and original treatment of arithmetic that is clearly articulated and carefully argued... It is a book that should be read by anyone with an interest in these topics, and will repay careful study. * Albert Casullo, Mind *I think highly of this book. Grounding Concepts adds a genuinely new option to the philosophical landscape. The central idea - that sense experience may be relevant to the epistemic status of concepts and thus play a non-evidential role in explaining knowledge - is both sensible and clever. The book is sophisticated and accessible, both extremely careful and extremely clear... Grounding Concepts is an excellent book. It provides a sophisticated and clear discussion of a difficult nest of issues in the philosophy of mathematics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. By developing a new theoretical option, it makes a significant contribution to the literature on the epistemology of the a priori. Anyone interested in the epistemology of arithmetic or the nature of a priori knowledge would profit from reading it. * Joshua Schechter, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsPART 1 - REALISM AND KNOWLEDGE; PART 2 - AN EPISTEMOLOGY FOR ARITHMETIC; PART 3 - OBJECTIONS

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Book SynopsisLuciano Floridi presents a book that will set the agenda for the philosophy of information. PI is the philosophical field concerned with (1) the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and (2) the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. This book lays down, for the first time, the conceptual foundations for this new area of research. It does so systematically, by pursuing three goals. Its metatheoretical goal is to describe what the philosophy of information is, its problems, approaches, and methods. Its introductory goal is to help the reader to gain a better grasp of the complex and multifarious nature of the various concepts and phenomena related to information. Its analytic goal is to answer several key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest, arising from the investigation of semantic information.Trade ReviewThe impressive and exciting project that Floridi undertakes in his book is aimed at establishing the philosophy of information as a mature subdiscipline of philosophy, with its own method and research programme ... Floridi's book not only presents a comprehensive framework for the philosophy of information but also makes a strong case for its legitimacy as a mature subdiscipline of philosophy. The intellectual debates and new research that it has already stimulated testify to its importance as a significant contribution to the literature. * Hilmi Demir, Mind *the non-technical portions are understandable to everyone and provide plenty of food for thought. * Steven Harnad, Times Literary Supplement *This is a monumental work ... Floridi goes through much of contemporary philosophy, as seen through a lens fashioned from the concept of information ... The Philosophy of Information is a lovely source of ideas, and also a wonderful indication of how much there might be to gain for philosophy by looking at contemporary computer science. * Staffan Angere, Theoria *This is an ambitious book ... there is a great deal to admire in this book, including much to admire philosophically. For example, some of the material on epistemology, especially Ch. 13 but also some of his work on the definition of knowledge, is masterful ... this an intriguing, eye-opening work * Frederick Kroon, Journal of Applied Philosophy *Given the breadth and depth of coverage of all its topics, the careful organisation and structuring of concepts, and the relevance of its contents, The Philosophy of Information shall be deemed essential reading for philosophers and computer scientists alike, especially those interested in Artificial Intelligence. * Flavio Soares Correa da Silva, AISB Quarterly *Just around the beginning of the new millennium, Floridi began his important and influential program, and this book brings between two covers much of his previous work, and also augments, updates, and connects these publications ... Floridis book sets an ambitious agenda for the philosophy of information ... there is much of interest and value in this major book. * J. Michael Dunn, Metascience *The Philosophy of Information is clearly a work of great ambition, originality, and value. * Stephen Leach, Metapsychology *Very well written, and clearly presented. ... many authors have written about philosophy and information before, but no-one has set out to deal with it in such a thorough way. This is clearly a very important book, and I think it justifies the author's claim that it describes the first philosophical analysis of information in all its aspects. * David Bawden, Library and Information Research *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. What is the Philosophy of Information? ; 2. Open Problems in the Philosophy of Information ; 3. The Method of Levels of Abstraction ; 4. Semantic Information and the Veridicality Thesis ; 5. Outline of a Theory of Strongly Semantic Information ; 6. The Symbol Grounding Problem ; 7. Action-Based Semantics ; 8. Semantic Information and the Correctness Theory of Truth ; 9. The Logical Unsolvability of the Gettier Problem ; 10. The Logic of Being Informed ; 11. Understanding Epistemic Relevance ; 12. Semantic Information and the Network Theory of Account ; 13. Consciousness, Agents and the Knowledge Game ; 14. Against Digital Ontology ; 15. A Defence of Informational Structural Realism ; References

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Book SynopsisLuciano Floridi presents a book that will set the agenda for the philosophy of information. PI is the philosophical field concerned with (1) the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and (2) the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. This book lays down, for the first time, the conceptual foundations for this new area of research. It does so systematically, by pursuing three goals. Its metatheoretical goal is to describe what the philosophy of information is, its problems, approaches, and methods. Its introductory goal is to help the reader to gain a better grasp of the complex and multifarious nature of the various concepts and phenomena related to information. Its analytic goal is to answer several key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest, arising from the investigation of semantic information.Trade ReviewThe impressive and exciting project that Floridi undertakes in his book is aimed at establishing the philosophy of information as a mature subdiscipline of philosophy, with its own method and research programme ... Floridi's book not only presents a comprehensive framework for the philosophy of information but also makes a strong case for its legitimacy as a mature subdiscipline of philosophy. The intellectual debates and new research that it has already stimulated testify to its importance as a significant contribution to the literature. * Hilmi Demir, Mind *The non-technical portions are understandable to everyone and provide plenty of food for thought. * Steven Harnad, Times Literary Supplement *This is a monumental work ... Floridi goes through much of contemporary philosophy, as seen through a lens fashioned from the concept of information ... The Philosophy of Information is a lovely source of ideas, and also a wonderful indication of how much there might be to gain for philosophy by looking at contemporary computer science. * Staffan Angere, Theoria *This is an ambitious book ... there is a great deal to admire in this book, including much to admire philosophically. For example, some of the material on epistemology, especially Ch. 13 but also some of his work on the definition of knowledge, is masterful ... this an intriguing, eye-opening work * Frederick Kroon, Journal of Applied Philosophy *Given the breadth and depth of coverage of all its topics, the careful organisation and structuring of concepts, and the relevance of its contents, The Philosophy of Information shall be deemed essential reading for philosophers and computer scientists alike, especially those interested in Artificial Intelligence. * Flavio Soares Correa da Silva, AISB Quarterly *Just around the beginning of the new millennium, Floridi began his important and influential program, and this book brings between two covers much of his previous work, and also augments, updates, and connects these publications ... Floridis book sets an ambitious agenda for the philosophy of information ... there is much of interest and value in this major book. * J. Michael Dunn, Metascience *The Philosophy of Information is clearly a work of great ambition, originality, and value. * Stephen Leach, Metapsychology *Very well written, and clearly presented. ... many authors have written about philosophy and information before, but no-one has set out to deal with it in such a thorough way. This is clearly a very important book, and I think it justifies the author's claim that it describes the first philosophical analysis of information in all its aspects. * David Bawden, Library and Information Research *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. What is the Philosophy of Information? ; 2. Open Problems in the Philosophy of Information ; 3. The Method of Levels of Abstraction ; 4. Semantic Information and the Veridicality Thesis ; 5. Outline of a Theory of Strongly Semantic Information ; 6. The Symbol Grounding Problem ; 7. Action-Based Semantics ; 8. Semantic Information and the Correctness Theory of Truth ; 9. The Logical Unsolvability of the Gettier Problem ; 10. The Logic of Being Informed ; 11. Understanding Epistemic Relevance ; 12. Semantic Information and the Network Theory of Account ; 13. Consciousness, Agents and the Knowledge Game ; 14. Against Digital Ontology ; 15. A Defence of Informational Structural Realism ; References

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Book SynopsisDiscusses topics such as: freedom to act; weakness of the will; the logical form of talk about actions, intentions, and causality; the logic of practical reasoning; Hume's theory of the indirect passions; and the nature and limits of decision theory. This book argues for an ontology which includes events along with persons and other objects.Trade ReviewReview from other book by this author `...these intriguing views are ingeniously argued and fruitfully provocative.' Philosophy.Review from previous edition 'it must be said that this is one of the most impressive works of analytical philosophy to appear for a good many years.' * Peter Strawson, Times Literary Supplement *Review from previous edition 'it must be said that this is one of the most impressive works of analytical philosophy to appear for a good many years... The positions adopted are argued for with an extraordinarily sustained seriousness and determination... the work will become, and deserves to become, a classic in its field.' * Peter Strawson, Times Literary Supplement *Table of Contents1. ACTIONS, REASONS, AND CAUSES (1963) ; 6. THE LOGICAL FORM OF ACTION SENTENCES (1967) ; 11. MENTAL EVENTS (1970)

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Book SynopsisOnly the most naïve or tendentious among us would deny the extent and intensity of suffering in the world. Can one hold, consistently with the common view of suffering in the world, that there is an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God? This book argues that one can.Wandering in Darkness first presents the moral psychology and value theory within which one typical traditional theodicy, namely, that of Thomas Aquinas, is embedded. It explicates Aquinas''s account of the good for human beings, including the nature of love and union among persons. Eleonore Stump also makes use of developments in neurobiology and developmental psychology to illuminate the nature of such union. Stump then turns to an examination of narratives. In a methodological section focused on epistemological issues, the book uses recent research involving autism spectrum disorder to argue that some philosophical problems are best considered in the context of narratives. Using the methodology argued for, the book gives detailed, innovative exegeses of the stories of Job, Samson, Abraham and Isaac, and Mary of Bethany. In the context of these stories and against the backdrop of Aquinas''s other views, Stump presents Aquinas''s own theodicy, and shows that Aquinas''s theodicy gives a powerful explanation for God''s allowing suffering. She concludes by arguing that this explanation constitutes a consistent and cogent defense for the problem of suffering.Trade ReviewEleanore Stump has written a magnificent book. ... It gives us a deeply insightful account of the nature of love, as desire for the good of the beloved and for union with the beloved * Richard Swinburne, Expository Times {Main} *This is an excellent book. Baehr proposes an interesting and original account of the proper goals of a virtue theory for epistemology and makes substantive progress toward developing a theory of his own. The quality of argument is very high and Baehr's writing is elegant and clear. * Andrew D. Cling, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Eleonore Stumps major new book on the problem of suffering is perhaps the most important contribution to the field in decades. . . . reading this book is a thought- provoking spiritual journey which raises all kinds of fresh yet down-to-earth and urgent questions. Ultimately, it may have the potential to transform how we think about and do theology for, once joint attention takes precedence over correct belief and virtuous conduct, then our lives become more complex yet richer. * Philip Goodchild, Religion *a true breakthrough... which is in a manner her magnum opus... A truly magnificent achievement, the book is rich with compelling narratives from inside and outside the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. * Trent Dougherty, Analysis *Noted Aquinas scholar Stump weaves together theology, philosophy, and biblical studies in a comprehensive exploration of suffering and redemption... . her rigorous, careful argumentation and outstanding use of Scripture in the service of analytic philosophy make this an important book for studies of theology and philosophy of religion. It is a necessary addition to collections in theology and philosophy. Highly recommended. * Choice *Wandering in Darkness is Eleonore Stump's magisterial treatment of the problem of evil... It is bold, meticulously argued, and highly nuanced. In terms of scope and power, Stump's book clearly ranks among the best book length treatments of the problem of evil... Stump has produced a book that deserves the careful attention of any philosophically able reader interested in the problem of suffering in light of the belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, essentially good God. * Charles Taliaferro & Paul Reasoner, European Journal for the Philosophy of Religion *Eleonore Stump's major new book on the problem of suffering is perhaps the most important contribution to the field in decades... reading this book is a thought-provoking spiritual journey which raises all kinds of fresh yet down-to-earth and urgent questions. Ultimately, it may have the potential to transform how we think about and do theology * Philip Goodchild, Theology *Stump's book is original, insightful, and brilliant. This magnum opus is the product of measured thought and mature experience. In it, Stump mounts a strong, lucid defense of a traditional Christian (specifically Thomistic) understanding of the problem of suffering (limited in her investigation to the suffering of fully functional adult persons). To do this, she uses both analytic philosophy and narratives... The philosophy is excellent... those who share the Thomistic worldview will also find Stump's reflections to be deeply moving reminders of the excellence and wonder of God's love. * Glen Harden, Religious Studies Review *immensely ambitious... her interpretation of the four biblical narratives is... stunningly successful, repeatedly finding new levels of meaning. * Stephen Mulhall, Times Literary Supplement *a must-read for philosophers of religion and a very beneficial read for other philosophers and for other scholars of religion. It is without question a highly nuanced and philosophically deep book. I have benefited both personally and philosophically from reflecting on what Stump says in the book about love, and Stump's insights on Franciscan knowledge of persons have led me to a deeper appreciation of the prospects for a religiously rich form of "skeptical faith," one that allows, paradoxically, for knowing God even if one lacks the knowledge or even the belief that God exists. More generally, the potential for applying some of the central ideas in the book to other problems in philosophy is enormous. * Paul Draper, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *It takes a lifetime, as well as a remarkable life, to write a book like Wandering in Darkness. Eleonore Stump asks: Is it possible in the face of suffering to believe in a God who is omnipotent and perfectly morally good? She relentlessly explores this inquiry not only by helping us to see that the question itself must be questioned, but by applying to the query her extraordinary erudition, a gift for philosophical and analytical clarity, and what must be hard-won and profound theological judgements. * Stanley Hauerwas, Christian Century *Eleonore Stump's Wandering in Darkness poses a learned, astutely crafted argument for the compatability of human suffering and God's existence, and in doing so it provides a number of innovations that will be of real interest to analytic philosophers of religion in particular and more generally to anyone curious about the so-called 'problem of evil' * Daniel Colucciello Barber, Journal of Religious Studies *Table of ContentsPART I: THE NATURE OF THE PROJECT; PART II: THE WORLD AT LARGE: LOVE AND LONELINESS; PART III: THE WORLD OF THE STORIES: SUFFERING IN PARTICULAR; PART IV: OTHER-WORLDLY THEODICY: WHAT WE CARE ABOUT IN A DEFENSE

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Book SynopsisBelief in God answers two questions: what, if anything, is it that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are agreeing about when they join in claiming that there is a God; and what, if any, prospects are there for rationally defending or attacking this claim? In the context of a sustained argument for particular answers to these questions, Tim Mawson tackles many of the most prominent topics in the philosophy of religion. He argues that those who believe that there is a God are best interpreted as believing that there is a being who is essentially personal, transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, perfectly free, perfectly good, and necessary; and non-essentially creator of the world and value; revealer of Himself; and offerer of everlasting life. Having explored the meaning and consistency of this conception of God in the first half of the book, Mawson goes on to consider whether or not belief or the absence of belief in such a God might be the sort of thing that does not ratiTrade ReviewAnyone working in the analytical tradition of philosophy of religion, at any level, would find something of interest in the book: both as teaching material (I know from experience how much students enjoy some of the experiments), and as a contribution in its own right. * Philosophy *a lively and engaging introduction to the philosophy of religion...makes some significant contributions to contemporary debates in the subject, and which will provide a great deal of discussion among those working in this field ... his style is contagiously enthusiastic ... Mawson has presented a provocative and stimulating argument concerning the nature and existence of God * Brian Clack, Ars Disputandi *The conversational and relaxed style, as of a good undergraduate supervision, full of lively illustrations in the form of little parables, appeals. But the discussion moves to a higher level than the commendation suggests, and T.J. Mawson voices interesting and provocative thoughts. * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsTHE CONCEPT OF GOD ; THE EXISTENCE OF GOD ; FAITH

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Book SynopsisOur Fate is a collection of John Martin Fischer''s previously published articles on the relationship between God''s foreknowledge and human freedom. The book contains a new introductory essay that places all of the chapters in the book into a cohesive framework. The introductory essay also provides some new views about the issues treated in the book, including a bold and original account of God''s foreknowledge of free actions in a causally indeterministic world. The focus of the book is a powerful traditional argument for the incompatibility of God''s foreknowledge and human freedom to do otherwise. Fischer presents this argument (in various forms) and defends it against some of the most salient criticisms, especially Ockhamism.The incompatibilist''s argument is driven by the fixity of the past, and, in particular, the fixity of God''s prior beliefs about our current behavior. The author gives special attention to Ockhamism, which contends that God''s prior beliefs are not over-and-done-with in the past, and are thus not subject to the intuitive idea of the fixity of the past. In the end, Fischer defends the argument for the incompatibility of God''s foreknowledge and human freedom to do otherwise, but he further argues that this incompatibility need not entail the incompatibility of God''s foreknowledge and human moral responsibility. Thus, through this collection of essays, Fischer develops a semicompatibilist view -- the belief that God''s foreknowledge is entirely compatible with human moral responsibility, even if God''s foreknowledge rules out freedom to do otherwise.Trade ReviewFischer's argument is interesting not only for specialists who are interested in the (in)compatibility of God's foreknowledge, the freedom to choose otherwise and moral responsibility but also for specialists who are interested in the (in)compatibility of causal determinism, the freedom to choose otherwise and moral responsibility. The reason is that the two issues have much ground in common, while there are also relevant differences, which Fischer elucidates. * Martijn Boot, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; 1. Introduction: God, Freedom, and Moral Responsibility ; 2. Scotism ; 3. Freedom and Actuality ; 4. Putting Molinism in its Place ; 5. Power Over the Past ; 6. Freedom, Foreknowledge, and the Fixity of the Past ; 7. Ockhamism: The Facts ; 8. Snapshot Ockhamism ; 9. Engaging with Pike: God, Freedom, and Time ; with Patrick Todd and Neal A. Tognazzini ; 10. The Truth about Freedom A Reply to Merricks ; with Patrick Todd ; 11. The Truth about Foreknowledge ; with Patrick Todd ; 12. Omniscience, Freedom, and Dependence ; with Neal A. Tognazzini

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Book SynopsisDespite its place in the humanities, the career prospects and numbers of women in philosophy much more closely resemble those found in the sciences and engineering. This book collects a series of critical essays by female philosophers pursuing the question of why philosophy continues to be inhospitable to women and what can be done to change it. By examining the social and institutional conditions of contemporary academic philosophy in the Anglophone world as well as its methods, culture, and characteristic commitments, the volume provides a case study in interpretation of one academic discipline in which women''s progress seems to have stalled since initial gains made in the 1980s. Some contributors make use of concepts developed in other contexts to explain women''s under-representation, including the effects of unconscious biases, stereotype threat, and micro-inequities. Other chapters draw on the resources of feminist philosophy to challenge everyday understandings of time, communiTrade ReviewThis is an important volume for philosophy as an institution. It raises many difficult questions for the institution of philosophy with regard to its own internal injustices and what is being left out of academic philosophy itself. The articles also offer many useful suggestions for how we might do things differently, so that more women want to be philosophers and help to change the discipline so that it can more closely resemble what it has long claimed to be: a universal discipline, inclusive of human thought. * Hypatia: A Journal for Feminist Philosophy *Women in Philosophy is a call for changes that need to be adopted by all philosophers but especially our male colleagues. Every philosophy department needs to have at least one copy of this book so that it can be passed around and then discussed. The discussions prompted will be philosophically challenging because the book is philosophy done well. May those discussions also bring about the kinds of changes that make philosophy better. * Peg O' Connor, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; 1. Introduction: Searching for Sofia: Gender and Philosophy in the 21st Century ; Fiona Jenkins and Katrina Hutchison ; 2. Women in Philosophy: Why Should We Care? ; Marilyn Friedman ; 3. Implicit Bias, Stereotype Threat and Women in Philosophy ; Jennifer Saul ; 4. Women and deviance in philosophy ; Helen Beebee ; 5. Singing the Post-Discrimination Blues: Notes for a Critique of Academic Meritocracy ; Fiona Jenkins ; 6. Sages and Cranks: The Difficulty of Identifying First-Rate Philosophers ; Katrina Hutchison ; 7. Models and Values: Why Did New Zealand Philosophy Departments Stop Hiring Women Philosophers? ; Adriane Rini ; 8. Not Just a Pipeline Problem: Improving Women's Participation in Philosophy in Australia ; Susan Dodds and Eliza Goddard ; 9. Women in and out of Philosophy ; Catriona Mackenzie and Cynthia Townley ; 10. Rethinking the Moral Significance of Micro-Inequities: The Case of Women in Philosophy ; Samantha Brennan ; 11. The Silencing of Women ; Justine McGill ; 12. Finding Time for Philosophy ; Michelle Bastian ; Appendix 1: Seeing the Trends in the Data ; Glenys Bishop, with Helen Beebee, Eliza Goddard and Adriane Rini ; Appendix 2: Statistical Analyses ; Glenys Bishop ; Contributor Biographies ; Index

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Book SynopsisTraditionally, philosophers of quantum mechanics have addressed exceedingly simple systems: a pair of electrons in an entangled state, or an atom and a cat in Dr. Schrodinger''s diabolical device. But recently, much more complicated systems, such as quantum fields and the infinite systems at the thermodynamic limit of quantum statistical mechanics, have attracted, and repaid, philosophical attention. Interpreting Quantum Theories has three entangled aims. The first is to guide those familiar with the philosophy of ordinary QM into the philosophy of ''QM infinity'', by presenting accessible introductions to relevant technical notions and the foundational questions they frame. The second aim is to develop and defend answers to some of those questions. Does quantum field theory demand or deserve a particle ontology? How (if at all) are different states of broken symmetry different? And what is the proper role of idealizations in working physics? The third aim is to highlight ties between Trade ReviewEach of these chapters by itself makes an important contribution to philosophy of physics; but amazingly, Ruetsche ties them each to the overarching argument against pristine interpretations and for a modification of traditional scientific realism. ... It is a book that repays close study and which should be discussed extensively by philosophers in the years to come. * Hans Halvorson, Metascience *All in all, the book is a remarkable achievement: at one and the same time a cohesive account of a major body of work by the author and others, an accessible and philosophically sensitive introduction to the field, a powerful defence of a largely novel position in philosophy of science through careful attention to scientific details, and an impressive advertisement for the value of that strategy in philosophy of science that places a high premium on mathematical rigour, without losing focus on the philosophical issues at hand. It is not the only strategy available but, in Reutsches hands at least, it is remarkably effective. * David Wallace, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science *Ruetsche's book is set apart from many of the recent books of the philosophy of physics, not only in its engagement with the quantum theory of infinite systems (including quantum field theory), but also in its explicit engagement with questions from general philosophy of science ... It is a book that repays close study and which should be discussed extensively by philosophers in the years to come. * Hans Halvorson, Metascience *Table of ContentsContents ; Preface ; Abbreviations and Symbols ; 1. Exegesis Saves: Interpreting Physical Theories ; 2. Quantizing ; 3. Beyond the Stone-von Neumann Theorem ; 4. Representation Without Taxation ; 5. Axioms for Quantum Theories ; 6. Interpreting Quantum Theories: Some Options ; 7. Extraordinary QM ; 8. Interpreting Extraordinary QM ; 9. Is Particle Physics Particle Physics? ; 10. Particles and the Void ; 11. Phenomenological Particle Notions ; 12. A Matter of Degree: Making Sense of Phase Structure ; 13. Interlude: Symmetry Breaking in QSM ; 14. Broken Symmetry and Physicists' QFT ; 15. Morals? ; References

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first comprehensive study of Rousseau''s rich and complex theory of the type of self-love (amour propre ) that, for him, marks the central difference between humans and the beasts. Amour propre is the passion that drives human individuals to seek the esteem, approval, admiration, or love--the recognition --of their fellow beings. Neuhouser reconstructs Rousseau''s understanding of what the drive for recognition is, why it is so problematic, and how its presence opens up far-reaching developmental possibilities for creatures that possess it. One of Rousseau''s central theses is that amour propre in its corrupted, manifestations--pride or vanity--is the principal source of an array of evils so widespread that they can easily appear to be necessary features of the human condition: enslavement, conflict, vice, misery, and self-estrangement. Yet Rousseau also argues that solving these problems depends not on suppressing or overcoming the drive for recognition but on cultivaTrade Reviewexemplary * Wayne M. Martin, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Neuhouser offers a novel framing of the issues, makes important contributions on a number of controversial points, and concludes with a bold and original (if also somewhat speculative) development of Rousseau's hints that self-love functions as a condition on the possibility of rationality. * Wayne M. Martin, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *This work does an admirable job of clarifying the central notion of Rousseau's philosophy, amour-propre, by placing it within the context of a theodicy. It is arguably the first comprehensive treatment of Rousseau's theory of amour-propre, or, the desire for recognition in the eyes of other humaan beings...While Neuhouser's book may appeal to philosophers of religion, political theorists, thinkers interested in psychology, and interpersonal communications, it should appeal to Rousseau scholars especially, It is one of the most nauanced and comprehensive studies of Rousseau's theory of amour-propre available today. His treatment of the theory is persuasive, and he stays true to Rousseau's thought. * Jeff Linz, The Heythrop Journal *Table of ContentsI. DEFINING HUMAN NATURE; II. DIAGNOSIS; III. PRESCRIPTION; IV. CURING THE MALADY WITH ITS OWN RESOURCES

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Book SynopsisThe pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren''t very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. For the psychological dimensions of well-being, particularly our emotional lives, are far richer and more complex than we tend to realize. Knowing one''s own interests is no trivial matter. As well, we tend to make a variety of systematic errors in the pursuit of happiness. We may need, then, to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policy makers, and other students Trade Reviewthis is a wonderfully stimulationg, highly original book. * Jennifer Hawkins, Journal of Utilitas *Haybron's book is addressed both to philosophers and to a wider audience of non-specialists. It is written with exemplary clarity and precision. The argument is carefully constructed and supported by a mix of telling examples, illuminating analysis and deft use of empirical research. Haybron is scrupulously honest in assessing the impact of his arguments: his conclusions are carefully nuanced. The result is an engaging and throught-provoking discussion, which poses some penetrating questions for ethicists, political philosophers and psychologists... rich and stimulating * Carolyn Price, Philosophy *An original and thorough investigation, richly informed by empirical psychology, of almost every topic connected, or seen as connected, with happiness: the self, well-being and virtue, and the good society. It is written in an engaging, often humorous, sometimes poetic, style, and contains a wealth of illustrations from life, literature, film, science, the arts, the news media, and Haybron's own prodigious imagination... It is safe to say that, after this book, happiness will never be the same again. * Neera Badhwar, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Subtitled 'the elusive pscychology of well-being', this is a brilliant and comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the psychological sense... The book calls us to rethink our assumptions about the good life and the good society, raising many of the questions explored by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World and Island. All this raises interesting and complex questions for politicians and educationalist as they grapple with introducing happiness studies into the curriculum. * Psychology/Parasychology *Insightful and imaginative. A serious pleasurable read for those happy enough to explore a difficult subject. * Paul O'Doherty, Irish Times *Dan Haybron asks the key philosophical questions about happiness: what is happiness, and how can we know about it, and what is it good for? His book offers insightful answers that are well-grounded in both science and philosophy. The book is full of clear and rigorous arguments, but at the same time it is a pleasure to read. It will be a milestone in the philosophical discussion of happiness. * David Chalmers, Australian National University *Dan Haybron has written the definitive philosophical book on happiness, and it is a must-read for scholars of the good life. The work is broad, balanced, and interesting, and yet forcefully presents the case that happiness is a crucial element of good living. In making the argument, Haybron beautifully reviews both the philosophy of happiness, including what this concept means, and the empirical work on the topics arising in fields such as psychology and economics. * Ed Diener, University of Illinois *Both progress and provocation are vibrantly on display in Dan Haybron's oustanding new book, The Pursuit of Unhappiness. The book is a model of humanistic inquiry: acute philosophical argumentation disciplined by close and careful attention to the latest and best in the sciences of mind, everywhere textured by a keen eye for what it is to be a person - and why it matters. * John M. Doris, Washington University in St Louis *A prodigious act of scholarship whose comprehensiveness dwarfs previous efforts. The best single source for empirical and philosophical approaches to investigating happiness. A highly nuanced treatment that rewards the reader with its frequent and original insights. * Robert L. Woolfolk, Princeton University *Haybron's book is a perfect example of how philosophical ethics can matter beyond the academy as well as within it. This original book is an acute, engaging, and well-informed discussion of an issue of concern to every human being. * Roger Crisp, University of Oxford *Daniel Haybron has written a rare book that combines philosophical sophistication with detailed knowledge of, and respect for, the psychological literature. He integrates the best that philosophy and psychology have to offer in pursuit of an answer to the question that matters above all others: how we ought to live. The result is a book that will edify psychologists and philosophers alike. * Barry Schwartz, Swarthmore College *Haybron's treatment of the much exercised concept of happiness...is learned, thoughtful, up to date and illuminating. * Max Hocutt, The Philosophical Quarterly. *This is a very impressive text; rich in argument, empirical psychological findings, and insight. * Daniel O'Brien, Metapsychology Online Reviews. *[This book] takes the reader on an emotionally charged journey... it is a passionate manifesto... Also remarkable is the scope of the discussion, which ranges from philosophical methodology and metaphysics to social science and policy.... Top-notch philosophy. * Anna Alexandrova, Ethics. *Haybron's book is an excellent introduction to the problems of happiness and well-being. Though it is written in a rigorous analytic style, behind it there is a praiseworthy moral concern * Pierluigi Barrotta, Economics and Philosophy *Table of ContentsPART I: FUNDAMENTALS OF PRUDENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY ; 1. Taking Socrates's Question Seriously ; 2. Happiness, Well-Being, and the Good Life: A Primer ; 3. What Do We Want from a Theory of Happiness? Or how to make a mongrel concept hunt ; PART II: THE NATURE OF HAPPINESS ; 4. Hedonistic Theories of Happiness ; 5. Life Satisfaction Theories of Happiness ; 6. Emotional State Theories of Happiness ; 7. Happiness as Psychic Affirmation ; PART III: THE NATURE OF WELL-BEING ; 8. Well-Being and Virtue ; 9. Happiness, the Self, and Human Flourishing ; PART IV: PURSUING HAPPINESS ; 10. Do We Know How Happy We Are? ; 11. The Pursuit of Unhappiness ; 12. Happiness in Context: Notes on the Good Society

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Book SynopsisExploring Law''s Empire is a collection of essays examining the work of Ronald Dworkin in the philosophy of law and constitutionalism. A group of leading legal theorists develop, defend and critique the major areas of Dworkin''s work, including his criticism of legal positivism, his theory of law as integrity, and his work on constitutional theory.The volume concludes with a lengthy response to the essays by Dworkin himself, which develops and clarifies many of his positions on the central questions of legal and constitutional theory. The volume represents an ideal companion for students and scholars embarking on a study of Dworkin''s work.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The International Constitutional Judge ; 1. Should Constitutional Judges Be Philosophers? ; 2. The Place of History and Philosophy in the Moral Reading of the American Constitution ; 3. How Constitutional Theory Found its Soul: The Contributions of Ronald Dworkin ; 4. Coherence, Hypothetical Cases, and Precedent ; 5. Integrity and Stare Decisis ; 6. The Many Faces of Political Integrity ; 7. Did Dworkin Ever Answer the Crits? ; 8. Associative Obligations and the Obligation to Obey the Law ; 9. Law's Aims in Law's Empire ; 10. How Facts Make Law ; 11. Hartian Positivism and Normative Facts: How Facts Make Law II ; Response

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Book SynopsisRobert Cummins presents a series of essays motivated by the following question: Is the mind a collection of beliefs and desires that respond to and condition our feeling and perceptual experiences, or is this just a natural way to talk about it? What sort of conceptual framework do we need to understand what is really going on in our brains?Trade ReviewThe papers in this collection constitute an important and stimulating contribution to these debates ... Researchers working on these and related issues will greatly benefit from the lucid and thought-provoking discussions gathered here. * Mind *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; Preface ; 1. What it is like to be a computer ; 2. The LOT of the causal theory of mental content ; 3. Systematicity ; 4. Systematicity and the cognition of the structured domains with Jim Blackmon, David Byrd, Pierre Poirier, Martin Roth, and Georg Schwarz ; 5. Methodological reflections on belief ; 6. Inexplicit information ; 7. Representation and indication with Pierre Poirier ; 8. Representation and unexploited content with Jim Blackmon, David Byrd, Alexa Lee, and Martin Roth ; 9. Haugeland on representation and intentionality ; 10. Truth and meaning ; 11. Meaning and content in cognitive science with Martin Roth ; 12. Representational specialization: the synthetic a priori revisited ; 13. Biological preparedness and evolutionary explanation with Denise Dellarosa Cummins ; 14. Cognitive evolutionary psychology without representational nativism ; 15. Connectionism and the rationale constraint on cognitive explanation ; 16. 'How does it work?' vs. 'What are the laws?': Two conceptions of psychological explanation

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Book SynopsisThe distinguished philosopher Robert M. Adams presents a major work on virtue, which is once again a central topic in ethical thought. A Theory of Virtue is a systematic, comprehensive framework for thinking about the moral evaluation of character. Many recent attempts to stake out a place in moral philosophy for this concern define virtue in terms of its benefits for the virtuous person or for human society more generally. In Part One of this book Adams presents and defends a conception of virtue as intrinsic excellence of character, worth prizing for its own sake and not only for its benefits. In the other two parts he addresses two challenges to the ancient idea of excellence of character. One challenge arises from the importance of altruism in modern ethical thought, and the question of what altruism has to do with intrinsic excellence. Part Two argues that altruistic benevolence does indeed have a crucial place in excellence of character, but that moral virtue should also be expeTrade ReviewIn A Theory of Virtue, Adams works to provide an account of the virtues, which is a major contribution to the field, both in its subtle engagement with the detail of ethical lif and with the challenges it raises to the predominantly Aristotelian assumptions of most virtue ethics. * Stephen Watt The Philosophical Quarterly *Table of ContentsPART ONE: WHAT IS VIRTUE?; PART TWO: SELF AND OTHER; PART THREE: ARE THERE REALLY ANY VIRTUES?

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Book SynopsisRousseau forcefully describes the ideal of a democratic society, in which we live together as free and equal, and our politics focuses on the common good. Joshua Cohen explores this ideal, explaining why Rousseau thought that it was possible for human beings to live in such a society, and discussing the enduring importance of his political ideas.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. A Free Community of Equals? ; 2. The Society of the General Will ; 3. Reflections on the General Will's Sovereignty ; 4. The Natural Goodness of Humanity ; 5. Democracy

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Book SynopsisTony Coady explores the challenges that morality poses to politics. He confronts the complex intellectual tradition known as realism, which seems to deny any relevance of morality to politics, especially international politics. He argues that, although realism has many serious faults, it has lessons to teach us: in particular, it cautions us against the dangers of moralism in thinking about politics and particularly foreign affairs. Morality must not be confused with moralism: Coady characterizes various forms of moralism and sketches their distorting influence on a realistic political morality. He seeks to restore the concept of ideals to an important place in philosophical discussion, and to give it a particular pertinence in the discussion of politics. He deals with the fashionable idea of ''dirty hands'', according to which good politics will necessarily involve some degree of moral taint or corruption. Finally, he examines the controversial issue of the role of lying and deceptionTrade ReviewThose who know Tony Coady's writing will find its customary qualities on display pellucid prose, philosophical intelligence, wit, and a fierce and impatient disdain for those who abuse the privileges of power or the requirements of rational argument... this elegant essay is a worthy addition to the literature * David Archard, Contemporary Political Theory *Table of Contents1. Morality, moralism, and realism ; 2. Moralistic strictures and political reality-further quandaries ; 3. Concerning ideals ; 4. Engagement in evil: politics, dirty hands, and corruption ; 5. Politics and lying

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Book SynopsisDecision Theory and Rationality offers a challenging new interpretation of a key theoretical tool in the human and social sciences. This accessible book argues, contrary to orthodoxy in politics, economics, and management science, that decision theory cannot provide a theory of rationality.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition This fine book conducts a deep analysis and subtle evaluation of decision theory... Many valuable points about decision theory and rationality arise during this book's meticulous, probing examination of various accounts of utility, outcomes, and consistency among choices over time... Any student of decision theory, even one who disagrees with the book's conclusion about the theory's contribution to an understanding of rationality, will profit from the book's careful analysis of the theory. * Paul Weirich, Ethics *Bermúdez makes an important contribution to an area that has already generated a great deal of debate. His description of the challenges to decision theory and the strategies for addressing them is thought provoking. If he succeeds in making psychologists and others more reluctant to use the word rationality, it will be no great loss. * Gordon Pitz, Contemporary Psychology *This book does an admirable job of surveying and engaging the different possible responses to the challenges it addresses, so it is particularly worth reading to get a nuanced picture of the state of the field... the book gives us not only a thorough assessment of the various challenges facing decision theory, but also a clear way to frame discussion of the relationships among the different purposes decision theory might serve. * Lara Buchak, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of Contents1. Decision theory and the dimensions of rationality ; 2. The first challenge: Making sense of utility and preference ; 3. The second challenge: Individuating outcomes ; 4. The third challenge: Rationality over time ; 5. Rationality: Crossing the fault lines? ; Bibliography

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Table of ContentsPART I: KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY; CHAPTER 1: BELIEF IN GOD; CHAPTER 2: SKEPTICISM AND THE ANALYSIS OF KNOWLEDGE; CHAPTER 3: EXPLANATION AND CAUSATION; PART II: MIND AND SELF; CHAPTER 4: MENTAL STATES; CHAPTER 5: CONSCIOUSNESS; CHAPTER 6: FREE WILL AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY; CHAPTER 7: PERSONS AND THE SELF; PART III: VALUE THEORY; CHAPTER 8: META-ETHICS; CHAPTER 9: NORMATIVE ETHICS; CHAPTER 10: PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD

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Book SynopsisPreface and Acknowledgements Series Editor's Preface Permissions Notes on Contributors Abbreviations Introduction: Sartre on the Body; K.J.Morris PART I: CONTEXT AND CLARIFICATION The Body and the Book: Reading Being and Nothingness ; J.S.Catalano Husserl, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty on Embodiment, Touch, and the 'Double Sensation'; D.Moran Sartre and the Lived Body: Negation, Non-Positional Self-Awareness, and Hodological Space; A.Mirvish Sartre and Marcel on Embodiment: Reevaluating Traditional and Gynocentric Feminisms; C.Mui PART II: CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT Representing Bodies; Q.Cassam Resisting Sartrean Pain: Henry, Sartre and Biranism; M.G.Peckitt Sartre and Death: Forgetting the Mortal Body in Being and Nothingness ; C.Howells Sexual Paradigms; R.C.Solomon Some Patterns of Identification and Otherness; P.S.Morris PART III: CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION The Phenomenology of Clumsiness; K.J.Morris Sartre and Fanon on Embodied Bad Faith; L.R.Gordon Sartre in the Company of Merleau-Ponty, FTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements Series Editor's Preface Permissions Notes on Contributors Abbreviations Introduction: Sartre on the Body; K.J.Morris PART I: CONTEXT AND CLARIFICATION The Body and the Book: Reading Being and Nothingness ; J.S.Catalano Husserl, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty on Embodiment, Touch, and the 'Double Sensation'; D.Moran Sartre and the Lived Body: Negation, Non-Positional Self-Awareness, and Hodological Space; A.Mirvish Sartre and Marcel on Embodiment: Reevaluating Traditional and Gynocentric Feminisms; C.Mui PART II: CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT Representing Bodies; Q.Cassam Resisting Sartrean Pain: Henry, Sartre and Biranism; M.G.Peckitt Sartre and Death: Forgetting the Mortal Body in Being and Nothingness ; C.Howells Sexual Paradigms; R.C.Solomon Some Patterns of Identification and Otherness; P.S.Morris PART III: CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION The Phenomenology of Clumsiness; K.J.Morris Sartre and Fanon on Embodied Bad Faith; L.R.Gordon Sartre in the Company of Merleau-Ponty, Foucault and Duden; M.Langer The Body and Society: Sartre and the Sociologists; N.Crossley The Socially Shaped Body and the Critique of Corporeal Experience; E.A.Behnke Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisDesigned for complete beginners, Philosophy: Key Texts is an introduction to philosophy and gives a clear, readable overview of some of the major texts of Plato, Descartes, Hume, Mill and Nietzsche. As well as providing help in how to analyze these sources, the authors encourage the reader to question the arguments and positions presented.Trade Review'...these are very useful books, both of which I would recommend as valuable contributions to introductory literature in the field of philosophy.' - Elizabeth Burns, ThinkTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction Plato: Republic (c.375 BC) René Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) David Hume: An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748) John Stuart Mill: On Liberty (1859) Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil (1886) Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism and Humanism (1947) Glossary Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisThe definitive guide to Traditionalism: the world''s least-known major philosophy, but one that is essential for understanding our past, present and futureTraditionalism is founded on ancient teachings that, its followers argue, have been handed down from time immemorial, forming a basis of the sacred order that must be defended from modernity and the disorder it brings. It has been used to encourage respect for the environment, compose great music and reduce hostility between followers of different religions.But Traditionalism has applied to darker causes: from the election of Donald Trump to fascist movements and even terrorism. How has Traditionalism been so influential for so long, yet so little acknowledged and understood? Its followers have never aimed to reach the masses and have sought to affect the world quietly. In this book, the first of its kind for a wide audience, Traditionalism''s history, ideas and profound impact are laid out, shining a light Trade ReviewSedgwick brings an admirable clarity to the task of introducing Traditionalism, joining the dots between disparate thinkers and doing us a useful service, in helping us to spot it when we see it -- Christopher Harding * Telegraph *Astute ... this very fine book is a forensic look at the movement and its influence, and has several points where you both realise something and ponder "why did I never realise that?" -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman *Mark Sedgwick is one of our most trustworthy and erudite scholars of religion. Here, with a sure hand, he guides readers through a terribly important conversation among a group of intellectuals, commonly called Traditionalists, who see flaws in modernity, secularism, and democracy. The end result is a much better understanding of Traditionalism and how its contemporary right-wing proponents have distorted it. This will become a kind of go-to book for how to think, subtly and robustly, about Traditionalism in our contemporary world -- Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of THE SUPERHUMANITIESTraditionalism, propounded by René Guénon and pursued by others through the twentieth century, has roared back into prominence in recent years, having once been declared almost entirely defunct. Mark Sedgwick's literate and sensible thematic overview of this movement's principal doctrines is indispensable for anyone seeking to make sense of the changing ideological landscape of the present -- Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History, Yale UniversityAn informed, broad, user-friendly book on Traditionalism needed to be written - the ideas at the core of this philosophy, though once confined to the underground of Western thought, have become increasingly influential. Nobody is more qualified than Professor Mark Sedgwick to write such a book. The foremost international expert on Traditionalism and its history, Sedgwick draws here on his extensive academic knowledge and talent as a writer to produce an accessible guide, illuminating hidden ideas and providing a readers a path to understand some of the most radical social, religious, and political thinking in the world -- Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, and author of WAR FOR ETERNITY: THE RISE OF THE POPULIST RIGHT AND THE RETURN OF TRADITIONALISM

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