|
|
Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General
In this second edition of Steve Fuller's original work Philosophy,
Rhetoric, and the End of Knowledge: A New Beginning for Science and
Technology Studies, James Collier joins Fuller in developing an
updated and accessible version of Fuller's classic volume. The new
edition shifts focus slightly to balance the discussions of theory
and practice, and the writing style is oriented to advanced
students. It addresses the contemporary problems of knowledge to
develop the basis for a more publicly accountable science. The
resources of social epistemology are deployed to provide a positive
agenda of research, teaching, and political action designed to
bring out the best in both the ancient discipline of rhetoric and
the emerging field of science and technology studies (STS). The
authors reclaim and integrate STS and rhetoric to explore the
problems of knowledge as a social process--problems of increasing
public interest that extend beyond traditional disciplinary
resources. In so doing, the differences among disciplines must be
questioned (the exercise of STS) and the disciplinary boundaries
must be renegotiated (the exercise of rhetoric). This book
innovatively integrates a sophisticated theoretical approach to the
social processes of creating knowledge with a developing
pedagogical apparatus. The thought questions at the end of each
chapter, the postscript, and the appendix allow the reader to
actively engage the text in order to discuss and apply its
theoretical insights. Creating new standards for interdisciplinary
scholarship and communication, the authors bring numerous
disciplines into conversation in formulating a new kind of rhetoric
geared toward greater democratic participation in the
knowledge-making process. This volume is intended for students and
scholars in rhetoric of science, science studies, philosophy, and
communication, and will be of interest in English, sociology, and
knowledge management arenas as well.
This book deals with a previously neglected episode in the history
of logic and theories of cognition: the way in which conceptions of
inference changed during the 17th century. Gaukroger focuses on the
work of Descartes, contrasting his explanation of inference as an
instantaneous grasp in accord with the natural light of reason with
the Aristotelian view of inference as a discursive process. He
offers a new interpretation of Descartes' contribution to the
question, revealing it to be a significant advance over humanist
and late Scholastic conceptions, and argues that the Cartesian
account played a pivotal role in the development of our
understanding of the nature of inference.
The Routledge History of Philosophy series provides a chronological
survey of the history of Western Philosophy fro its beginnings in
the sixth century BC to the present time. It discusses all the
major philosophical developments in depth, and covers all those
regarded as great philosophers and many lesser figures of
philosophypast and present. We are pleased to announce all 10
volumes are now available in paperback for the first time.
In this wise and accessible collection of new interconnected philosophical essays, John Lachs, a highly respected senior philosopher in the american tradition, discusses a range of important personal and social issues relevant to all thinkers including professional philosophers, academics of all disciplines and general introspective readers. Topics include the role of education, questions about death and afterlife. bioethics, and discussions of major American thinkers.
Continuum's Reader's Guides are clear, concise and accessible
introductions to classic works of philosophy. Each book explores
the major themes, historical and philosophical context and key
passages of a major philosophical text, guiding the reader toward a
thorough understanding of often demanding material. Ideal for
undergraduate students, the guides provide an essential resource
for anyone who needs to get to grips with a philosophical text.
Wittgenstein's Tractatus - the only book he actually published
within his lifetime - was an immensely important work, which
changed the direction of philosophy in the first half of the
twentieth century. Highlighting the importance of the nature of
language in philosophy and the problematic nature of metaphysics,
it strongly influenced the work of Russell, the Vienna Circle and
A. J. Ayer. An understanding of the ideas in the Tractatus is
essential to fully grasp Wittgenstein's remarkable thought. In
Wittgenstein's 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus': A Reader's Guide,
Roger White provides a thorough account of the philosophical and
historical context of Wittgenstein's work. guiding the reader
towards a thorough understanding of this remarkable text. White
goes on to explore the reception and influence of the work and
offers a detailed guide to further reading. This is the ideal
companion to study of this hugely important philosophical work.
What is the nature of causation? How is causation linked with
explanation? And can there be an adequate theory of explanation?
These questions and many others are addressed in this unified and
rigorous examination of the philosophical problems surrounding
causation, laws and explanation. Part 1 of this book explores
Hume's views on causation, theories of singular causation, and
counterfactual and mechanistic approaches. Part 2 considers the
regularity view of laws and laws as relations among universals, as
well as recent alternative approaches to laws. Part 3 examines the
issues arising from deductive-nomological explanation, statistical
explanation, the explanation of laws and the metaphysics of
explanation. Accessible to readers of all levels, this book
provides an excellent introduction to one of the most enduring
problems of philosophy.
At first sight, Karl Marx and Ludwig Wittgenstein may well seem to be as different from each other as it is possible for the ideas of two major intellectuals to be. Despite this standard conception, however, a small number of scholars have long suggested that there are deeper philosophical commonalities between Marx and Wittgenstein. They have argued that, once grasped, these commonalities can radically change and enrich understanding both of Marxism and of Wittgensteinian philosophy. This book develops and extends this unorthodox view, emphasising the mutual enrichment that comes from bringing Marx's and Wittgenstein's ideas into dialogue with one another. Essential reading for all scholars and philosophers interested in the Marxist philosophy and the philosophy of Wittgenstein, this book will also be of vital interest to those studying and researching in the fields of social philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of social science and political economy. eBook available with sample pages: 0203453409
The Routledge Philosophy GuideBooks painlessly introduce students to the classic works of philosophy. Each GuideBook considers a major philosopher and a key area of their philosophy by focusing upon an important text - situating the philosopher and the work in a historical context, considering the text in question and assessing the philosopher's contribution to contemporary thought. Hegel and the Philosophy of Right introduces and assesses: * Hegel's life and the background of the Philosophy of Right * The ideas and text of the Philosophy of Right * The continuing importance of Hegel's work to philosophy and political thought.
First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an informa company.
This revised and updated edition of a standard work provides a
clear and authoritative survey of the Western tradition in
metaphysics and epistemology from the Presocratics to the present
day. Aimed at the beginning student, it presents the ideas of the
major philosophers and their schools of thought in a readable and
engaging way, highlighting the central points in each contributor's
doctrines and offering a lucid discussion of the next-level details
that both fills out the general themes and encourages the reader to
pursue the arguments still further through a detailed guide to
further reading. Whether John Shand is discussing the slow
separation of philosophy and theology in Augustine, Aquinas and
Ockham, the rise of rationalism, British empiricism, German
idealism or the new approaches opened up by Russell, Sartre and
Wittgenstein, he combines succinct but insightful exposition with
crisp critical comment. This new edition will continue to provide
students with a valuable work of initial reference.
This chronological survey explores Pascal's (162362) achievement as
mathematician, physicist and religious thinker; it also has a
chapter on his life. His work on conic sections, the probability
calculus, number theory, cycloid curves and hydrostatics is
considered in detail. Analyses of the Provincial Letters and the
Thoughts bring out the many distinctive features, thematicnn and
technical, of each text. Pascal's lesser known works are also
studied. There is a chapter on the Wager argument. A wide-ranging
bibliography completes the book.
This volume addresses the history and epistemology of early modern
cosmology. The authors reconstruct the development of cosmological
ideas in the age of 'scientific revolution' from Copernicus to
Leibniz, taking into account the growth of a unified
celestial-and-terrestrial mechanics. The volume investigates how,
in the rise of the new science, cosmology displayed deep and
multifaceted interrelations between scientific notions (stemming
from mechanics, mathematics, geometry, astronomy) and philosophical
concepts. These were employed to frame a general picture of the
universe, as well as to criticize and interpret scientific notions
and observational data. This interdisciplinary work reconstructs a
conceptual web pervaded by various intellectual attitudes and
drives. It presents an historical-epistemological unified itinerary
which includes Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Huygens,
Newton and Leibniz. For each of the scientists and philosophers, a
presentation and commentary is made of their cosmological views,
and where relevant, outlines of their most relevant physical
concepts are given. Furthermore, the authors highlight the
philosophical and epistemological implications of their scientific
works. This work is helpful both as a synthetic overview of early
modern cosmology, and an analytical exposition of the elements that
were intertwined in early-modern cosmology. This book addresses
historians, philosophers, and scientists and can also be used as a
research source book by post-graduate students in epistemology,
history of science and history of philosophy.
In this book twelve outstanding historians of early modern
philosophy undertake a study of the philosophy of Johannes Clauberg
(1622-1665). Clauberg was not only among the first followers of
Descartes (whose philosophy he taught from 1650 in Herborn and from
1652 until the end of his life in Duisburg) but also assured its
survival as an academic philosophy by giving it a more traditional
and more didactic expression. A first group of articles deals with
Clauberg's early metaphysics as it found its expression in his
Ontosophia of 1646 (republished with very considerable changes in
1664), the way it was influenced by Comenius (Leinsle), its
relation to Malebranche (Bardout) and Wolff (A0/00cole) and the way
in which it illustrates the difficulties of a Cartesian ontology in
general (Carraud). A second group of articles deals with problems
of knowledge: knowledge of God (Goudriaan), perceptual knowledge
(Spruit) and causality (PAtzold). There are also articles on
Clauberg's curious attempt to deal philosophically with the
etymology of the German language (Weber), Clauberg as a teacher of
Descartes' Principia (Verbeek), Clauberg's conception of corporeal
substance (Mercer), and Clauberg's relation to later, more radical
developments in Cartesian philosophy, especially in Lodewijk Meyer
(Albrecht). The volume is completed by a biographical introduction
and a short title bibliography of Clauberg's works, which allows an
appreciation of Clauberg's lasting international influence. It is
the first study on this scale of one of the most influential
philosophers of the seventeenth century.
This book on Alain Badiou's philosophy begins with a central theme:
the attempt to trace how Badiou has replaced the tradition of
critical theory and negation with an affirmative support of his
four generic procedures (art, science, love, and art) as
inseparable from his revitalization of both the subject and the
concept of truth. By defining four procedures as conditions of
philosophy, Badiou makes the attempt to establish each as
inter-related and systematically necessary to make a new proposal
for thought. The fidelity to Badiou's project for the 21st century,
however, requires a fundamental examination: are his four truths
complicated by an inescapable dilemma? And if so, can the four
truths be retained, as a whole, or does the individual reader have
to make a decision that will alter Badiou's project and
conclusions? By presenting the dilemmas of his thought, the
scholarly reader will be in a position to then pursue the necessary
study to come to their own conclusions and, by doing so, become
sufficiently free to resist the many coercions of social and
political life in liberal democracies today.
This book delivers philosophy’s first sustained examination of
handedness: being left-handed, right-handed, etc. It engages
literature from phenomenology and continental philosophy, analytic
philosophy, laterality studies, cognitive science and psychology,
gender studies and feminist philosophy, sociology, political
science, and more to provide a systematic accounting of the nature
of handedness, its basis in lived experience, its effects on bodily
performance, its role in varieties of inequality, and its part in
oppression and liberation. As a radical asymmetry in the body,
handedness plays a key role in human flourishing. It informs both
personal bodily movement and social life, from handshakes and high
fives to high tech tools made for one hand or the other. Moreover,
with left-handers making up just 10% of the population, handedness
presents a significant inequality in lived experience. To live and
live well, we must understand handedness.
In Rawls, Dewey and Constructivism, Eric Weber examines and
critiques John Rawls' epistemology and the unresolved tension -
inherited from Kant - between Representationalism and
Constructivism in Rawls' work. Weber argues that, despite Rawls'
claims to be a constructivist, his unexplored Kantian influences
cause several problems. In particular, Weber criticises Rawls'
failure to explain the origins of conceptions of justice, his
understanding of "persons" and his revival of Social Contract
Theory. Drawing on the work of John Dewey to resolve these
problems, the book argues for a rigorously constructivist approach
to the concept of justice and explores the practical implications
of such an approach for Education.
'There is no question of the contemporary importance and relevance of these essays. T. W. Adorno is one of the great critics of the role of irrational authoritarianism in contemporary society.' Douglas Kellner
'This collection demonstrates the continuing relevance of Adorno's work to the analysis and understanding of modern times. A brilliant contribution to the sociology of racism, anti-Semitism and popular culture.' - Bryan S. Turner, co-editor, The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology
'Theodor Adorno returns from the grave to deliver this timely warning about the dangers of superstition.' Review
When the American modern dancers Isadora Duncan (1877-1928) and
Martha Graham (1894-1991) read Nietzsche, they were inspired by the
way in which he uses images of dance to figure an alternative to
Christian values. They each came to describe their visions for
dance in Nietzschean terms. This book investigates the role
Nietzsche's dance images play in his project of 'revaluing all
values' and does so alongside the religious rhetoric and subject
matter evident in the dancing, teaching, and writing of Duncan and
Graham. It concludes that these modern dancers found justification
and guidance in Nietzsche's texts for developing dance as a medium
of religious experience and expression.
This book is the first complete commentary on Marx's manuscripts of 1861-63, works that guide our understanding of fundamental concepts such as 'surplus-value' and 'production price'. eBook available with sample pages: 0203461754
Dialogos" encompasses Greek language and literature, Greek history
and archaeology, Greek culture and thought, present and past: a
territory of distinctive richness and unsurpassed influence. It
seeks to foster critical awareness and informed debate about the
ideas, events and achievements that make up this territory, by
redefining their qualities, by exploring their interconnections and
by reinterpreting their significance within Western culture and
beyond.
In Relation to the Mysteries of Christianity
What are counterfactuals and what is their point? In many cases,
none at all. It may be true that if kangaroos didn't have tails,
they would fall over, but they do have tails and if they didn't
they wouldn't be kangaroos (or would they?). This is the sort of
thing that can give counterfactuals a bad name, as inhabitants of a
La La Land of the mind. On the other hand, counterfactuals do
useful service across a broad range of disciplines in both the
sciences and the humanities, including philosophy, history,
cosmology, biology, cognitive psychology, jurisprudence, economics,
art history, literary theory. They are also richly, albeit
sometimes treacherously, present in the everyday human realm of how
our lives are both imagined and lived: in the 'crossroads' scenario
of decision-making, the place of regret in retrospective
assessments of paths taken and not taken, and, at the outer limit,
as the wish not to have been born. Christopher Prendergast take us
on a dizzying exploratory journey through some of these
intellectual and human landscapes, mobilizing a wide range of
reference from antiquity to the present, and sustained by the
belief that, whether as help or hindrance, and with many variations
across cultures, counterfactual thinking and imagining are
fundamental to what it is to be human.
|
You may like...
Kant's Thinker
Patricia Kitcher
Hardcover
R3,097
Discovery Miles 30 970
|