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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Metaphysics & ontology
This book presents a collection of authoritative contributions on
the concept of time in early twentieth-century philosophy. It is
structured in the form of a thematic atlas: each section is
accompanied by relevant elementary logic maps that reproduce in a
"spatial" form the directionalities (arguments and/or discourses)
reported on in the text. The book is divided into three main
sections, the first of which covers phenomenology and the
perception of time by analyzing the works of Bergson, Husserl,
Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Deleuze, Guattari and Derrida. The second
section focuses on the language and conceptualization of time,
examining the works of Cassirer, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Lacan,
Ricoeur and Foucault, while the last section addresses the science
and logic of time as they appear in the works of Guillaume,
Einstein, Reichenbach, Prigogine and Barbour. The purpose of the
book is threefold: to provide readers with a comprehensive overview
of the concept of time in early twentieth-century philosophy; to
show how conceptual reasoning can be supported by accompanying
linguistic and spatial representations; and to stimulate novel
research in the humanistic field concerning the complex role of
graphic representations in the comprehension of concepts.
Recent years have seen a growth of interest in the great English
idealist thinker T. H. Green (1836-82) as philosophers have begun
to overturn received opinions of his thought and to rediscover his
original and important contributions to ethics, metaphysics, and
political philosophy. This collection of essays by leading experts,
all but one published here for the first time, introduces and
critically examines his ideas both in their context and in their
relevance to contemporary debates.
Sudduth provides a critical exploration of classical empirical
arguments for survival arguments that purport to show that data
collected from ostensibly paranormal phenomena constitute good
evidence for the survival of the self after death. Utilizing the
conceptual tools of formal epistemology, he argues that classical
arguments are unsuccessful.
Why broach and challenge the question of neutrality? For some
urgent reasons. The neuter is generally considered to be the
condition of objectivity. However, historically, this is asserted
by a subject which is masculine and not neuter. Claiming that truth
and the way of reaching it are and must be in the neuter amounts to
a misuse of power and a falsification of the real. Living beings
are not naturally neuter; they are sexuate somehow or other.
Subjecting them to the neuter as a condition of their objective
status transforms living beings into cultural products deprived of
their own origin and dynamism, and builds a world in which the
development and the sharing of life are impossible. In this book,
four contributors explore this basic mistake of our culture
starting from the work of Heidegger and his insistence on
maintaining that our being in the world - our Dasein - must be in
the neuter. They question the nature of the truth which is then at
stake and the political mistakes that it can cause. It is not here
a question of sexuality strictly speaking nor of sexual choice. The
concern of the two men and the two women who participate in this
volume is with the sexuate determination of all living beings. Is
not Heidegger's Dasein, as neutered and supposedly neutral, a kind
of technical device which prevents living beings from entering into
presence? If so, where might that ultimately lead?
David Henderson and Terence Horgan set out a broad new approach to
epistemology, which they see as a mixed discipline, having both a
priori and empirical elements. They defend the roles of a priori
reflection and conceptual analysis in philosophy, but their
revisionary account of these philosophical methods allows them a
subtle but essential empirical dimension. They espouse a
dual-perspective position which they call iceberg epistemology,
respecting the important differences between epistemic processes
that are consciously accessible and those that are not. Reflecting
on epistemic justification, they introduce the notion of
transglobal reliability as the mark of the cognitive processes that
are suitable for humans. Which cognitive processes these are
depends on contingent facts about human cognitive capacities, and
these cannot be known a priori.
In this rich collection of philosophical writings, Stanley Rosen
addresses a wide range of topics -from eros, poetry, and freedom to
problems like negation and the epistemological status of sense
perception. Though diverse in subject, Rosen's essays share two
unifying principles: there can be no legitimate separation of
textual hermeneutics from philosophical analysis, and philosophical
investigation must be oriented in terms of everyday language and
experience, although it cannot simply remain within these confines.
Ordinary experience provides a minimal criterion for the assessment
of extraordinary discourses, Rosen argues, and without such a
criterion we would have no basis for evaluating conflicting
discourses: philosophy would give way to poetry.
Philosophical problems are not so deeply embedded in a specific
historical context that they cannot be restated in terms as valid
for us today as they were for those who formulated them, the author
maintains. Rosen shows that the history of philosophy -- a story of
conflicting interpretations of human life and the structure of
intelligibility -- is a story that comes to life only when it is
rethought in terms of the philosophical problems of our own
personal and historical situation.
Properties and objects are everywhere. We cannot take a step
without walking into them; we cannot construct a theory in science
without referring to them. Given their ubiquitous character, one
might think that there would be a standard metaphysical account of
properties and objects, but they remain a philosophical mystery.
Douglas Ehring presents a defense of tropes--properties and
relations understood as particulars--and of trope bundle theory as
the best accounts of properties and objects, and advocates a
specific brand of trope nominalism, Natural Class Trope Nominalism.
This position rejects the existence of universals, and holds that
the nature of each individual trope is determined by its membership
in various natural classes of tropes (in contrast with the view
that a trope's nature is logically prior to those class
memberships).
The first part of the book provides a general introduction and
defense of tropes and trope bundle theory. Ehring demonstrates that
there are tropes and indicates some of the things that tropes can
do for us metaphysically, including helping to solve the problems
of mental causation, while remaining neutral between different
theories of tropes. In the second part he offers a more specific
defense of Natural Class Trope Nominalism, and provides a full
analysis of what a trope is.
The Greatest Story NEVER Told is here. What does the future hold
for us? The inseparable bond between past and future is the cause
and effect of our collective beliefs and the choices influenced by
them. Today's world mirrors the obvious flaws in our basic
assumptions. Unsolved mysteries of ancient history serve as
evidence to errors in our religious and historical precepts. Awaken
to the Inherited assumptions that shape our destiny. The key to the
cryptic message of Revelation is in the Metaphysics of Truth - THE
TRUTH IS ALWAYS TRYING TO REVEAL ITSELF TO US. Once we understand
our world as a reflection of the delicate metaphysical balance
between Truth's incessant Will to be made manifest and the errant
choices of human will, we will see the APOCALYPSE for what it
really is - an unveiling of Truth through the harsh experiences
that enlighten us. This unobserved dynamic has been working on an
individual and collective scale throughout the history of mankind
and helps us to expose the secrets believed to be forever hidden.
Although December 2012 has passed, the real meaning of Mayan
prophecy is found in the secrets to the book of Revelation - the
unbreakable conduit between PAST and FUTURE. The secrets to
Revelation's foretold perils and deceptive abuse of our mistaken
beliefs can be found in the misconceptions of our past. Embark on a
remarkable and unprecedented story of the human journey. Discover
this timeless heirloom that sheds new light on GOD, HUMAN ORIGINS,
ANCIENT MYSTERIES and REVELATION'S PROPHECY. You will never be the
same again.
This is an expanded edition of Sydney Shoemaker's seminal
collection of his work on interrelated issues in the philosophy of
mind and metaphysics. Reproducing all of the original papers, many
of which are now regarded as classics, and including four papers
published since the first edition appeared in 1984, Identity,
Cause, and Mind's reappearance will be warmly welcomed by
philosophers and students alike.
In his philosophical reflections on the art of lingering, acclaimed
cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han argues that the value we attach
today to the vita activa is producing a crisis in our sense of
time. Our attachment to the vita activa creates an imperative to
work which degrades the human being into a labouring animal, an
animal laborans. At the same time, the hyperactivity which
characterizes our daily routines robs human beings of the capacity
to linger and the faculty of contemplation. It therefore becomes
impossible to experience time as fulfilling. Drawing on a range of
thinkers including Heidegger, Nietzsche and Arendt, Han argues that
we can overcome this temporal crisis only by revitalizing the vita
contemplativa and relearning the art of lingering. For what
distinguishes humans from other animals is the capacity for
reflection and contemplation, and when life regains this capacity,
this art of lingering, it gains in time and space, in duration and
vastness. With his hallmark ability to bring the resources of
philosophy and cultural theory to bear on the conditions of modern
life, Byung-Chul Han's meditation on time will interest a wide
readership in cultural theory, philosophy and beyond.
What would it mean to apply quantum theory, without restriction and
without involving any notion of measurement and state reduction, to
the whole universe? What would realism about the quantum state then
imply? This book brings together an illustrious team of
philosophers and physicists to debate these questions. The
contributors broadly agree on the need, or aspiration, for a
realist theory that unites micro- and macro-worlds. But they
disagree on what this implies. Some argue that if unitary quantum
evolution has unrestricted application, and if the quantum state is
taken to be something physically real, then this universe emerges
from the quantum state as one of countless others, constantly
branching in time, all of which are real. The result, they argue,
is many worlds quantum theory, also known as the Everett
interpretation of quantum mechanics. No other realist
interpretation of unitary quantum theory has ever been found.
Others argue in reply that this picture of many worlds is in no
sense inherent to quantum theory, or fails to make physical sense,
or is scientifically inadequate. The stuff of these worlds, what
they are made of, is never adequately explained, nor are the worlds
precisely defined; ordinary ideas about time and identity over time
are compromised; no satisfactory role or substitute for probability
can be found in many worlds theories; they can't explain
experimental data; anyway, there are attractive realist
alternatives to many worlds. Twenty original essays, accompanied by
commentaries and discussions, examine these claims and
counterclaims in depth. They consider questions of ontology - the
existence of worlds; probability - whether and how probability can
be related to the branching structure of the quantum state;
alternatives to many worlds - whether there are one-world realist
interpretations of quantum theory that leave quantum dynamics
unchanged; and open questions even given many worlds, including the
multiverse concept as it has arisen elsewhere in modern cosmology.
A comprehensive introduction lays out the main arguments of the
book, which provides a state-of-the-art guide to many worlds
quantum theory and its problems.
This book aims to answer two simple questions: what is it to want
and what is it to intend? Because of the breadth of contexts in
which the relevant phenomena are implicated and the wealth of views
that have attempted to account for them, providing the answers is
not quite so simple. Doing so requires an examination not only of
the relevant philosophical theories and our everyday practices, but
also of the rich empirical material that has been provided by work
in social and developmental psychology. The investigation is
carried out in two parts, dedicated to wanting and intending
respectively. Wanting is analysed as optative attitudinising, a
basic form of subjective standard-setting at the core of compound
states such as 'longings', 'desires', 'projects' and 'whims'. The
analysis is developed in the context of a discussion of
Moore-paradoxicality and deepened through the examination of rival
theories, which include functionalist and hedonistic conceptions as
well as the guise-of-the-good view and the pure entailment
approach, two views popular in moral psychology. In the second part
of the study, a disjunctive genetic theory of intending is
developed, according to which intentions are optative attitudes on
which, in one way or another, the mark of deliberation has been
conferred. It is this which explains intention's subjection to the
requirements of practical rationality. Moreover, unlike wanting,
intending turns out to be dependent on normative features of our
life form, in particular on practices of holding responsible. The
book will be of particular interest to philosophers and
psychologists working on motivation, goals, desire, intention,
deliberation, decision and practical rationality.
The book God, Truth, and other Enigmas is a collection of eighteen
essays that fall under four headings: (God's)
Existence/Non-Existence, Omniscience, Truth, and Metaphysical
Enigmas. The essays vary widely in topic and tone. They provide the
reader with an overview of contemporary philosophical approaches to
the subjects that are indicated in the title of the book.
Human beings live in the illusion that they are in control of their
lives. They believe they have free choice. Education is a high
priority and laws are designed to insure justice for all. Yet
satisfaction, joy and full self-expression in daily living elude
most of us.
Art and Abstract Objects presents a lively philosophical exchange
between the philosophy of art and the core areas of philosophy. The
standard way of thinking about non-repeatable (single-instance)
artworks such as paintings, drawings, and non-cast sculpture is
that they are concrete (i.e., material, causally efficacious,
located in space and time). Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is currently
located in Paris. Richard Serra's Tilted Arc is 73 tonnes of solid
steel. Johannes Vermeer's The Concert was stolen in 1990 and
remains missing. Michaelangelo's David was attacked with a hammer
in 1991. By contrast, the standard way of thinking about repeatable
(multiple-instance) artworks such as novels, poems, plays, operas,
films, symphonies is that they must be abstract (i.e., immaterial,
causally inert, outside space-time): consider the current location
of Melville's Moby Dick, the weight of Yeats' "Sailing to
Byzantium", or how one might go about stealing Puccini's La Boheme
or vandalizing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9. Although novels,
poems, and symphonies may appear radically unlike stock abstract
objects such as numbers, sets, and propositions, most philosophers
of art think that for the basic intuitions, practices, and
conventions surrounding such works to be preserved, repeatable
artworks must be abstracta. This volume examines how philosophical
enquiry into art might itself productively inform or be
productively informed by enquiry into abstracta taking place within
not just metaphysics but also the philosophy of mathematics,
epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind and
language. While the contributors chiefly focus on the relationship
between philosophy of art and contemporary metaphysics with respect
to the overlap issue of abstracta, they provide a methodological
blueprint from which scholars working both within and beyond
philosophy of art can begin building responsible, mutually
informative, and productive relationships between their respective
fields.
Aristotle's Topics is a handbook for dialectic, which can be
understood as a philosophical debate between a questioner and a
respondent. In book 2, Aristotle mainly develops strategies for
making deductions about 'accidents', which are properties that
might or might not belong to a subject (for instance, Socrates has
five fingers, but might have had six), and about properties that
simply belong to a subject without further specification. In the
present commentary, here translated into English for the first
time, Alexander develops a careful study of Aristotle's text. He
preserves objections and replies from other philosophers whose work
is now lost, such as the Stoics. He also offers an invaluable
picture of the tradition of Aristotelian logic down to his time,
including innovative attempts to unify Aristotle's guidance for
dialectic with his general theory of deductive argument (the
syllogism), found in the Analytics. The work will be of interest
not only for its perspective on ancient logic, rhetoric, and
debate, but also for its continuing influence on argument in the
Middle Ages and later.
Subconscious and the Superconscious Planes of Mind, written by W.W.
Atkinson in 1909, is a somewhat supernatural text on the different
levels at which the mind works and functions. There are the
sub-conscious (below normal), conscious (normal), and
super-conscious (above normal) levels, which Atkinson describes in
detail. He also covers the elements of each level-for example, in
the subconscious our memory works and resides. While based in hard
facts, Atkinson uses the mind theories to justify instances such as
telepathy and mind reading, in which he strongly believed. American
writer WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON (1862-1932) was editor of the
popular magazine New Thought from 1901 to 1905, and editor of the
journal Advanced Thought from 1916 to 1919. He authored dozens of
New Thought books under numerous pseudonyms, including "Yogi," some
of which are likely still unknown today.
Tracing the notion of 'the gift' in Nietzsche's Thus Spoke
Zarathustra, Emilio Corriero provides a new interpretation of this
essential text, alongside 'the gift's' evolution as a key concept
in the history of western philosophy and Christianity. The last
phase of Nietzsche's thought, including his writings on the death
of God, The Will to Power, the Overman, and eternal recurrence are
analysed anew in Corriero's reading of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. From
Nietzsche's Prologue, in which Zarathustra presents the idea of the
Overman as a gift of love and wisdom, up to the fourth and final
book, in which the theme of hospitality and sacrifice are
inextricably linked to the concept of donation, highlighting the
novelty and exceptionality of Zarathustra's gift. Building on these
ideas, this book reveals how the gift of Zarathustra put forward by
Nietzsche rethinks the relationships between individuals based on
Christian doctrine, enabling new forms of coexistence and sociality
to thrive.
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