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Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present
The commonly held view that Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion
is fideistic loses plausibility when contrasted with recent
scholarship on Wittgenstein's corpus and biography. This book
reevaluates the place of Wittgenstein in the philosophy of religion
and charts a path forward for the subfield by advancing three
themes.
"The World Unclaimed" argues that Heidegger's critique of modern
epistemology in "Being and Time" is seriously flawed. Heidegger
believes he has done away with epistemological problems concerning
the external world by showing that the world is an existential
structure of Dasein. However, the author argues that Heidegger
fails to make good his claim that he has "rescued" the phenomenon
of the world, which he believes the tradition of philosophy has
bypassed. Heidegger fails not only to reclaim the world but also to
acknowledge its loss. Alweiss thus calls into question Heidegger's
claim that ontology is more fundamental than epistemology.
"The World Unclaimed" develops its powerful critique of Being and
Time by arguing for a return to Husserl. It draws on Husserl's
insight that it is the moving and sensing body that discloses how
we are already familiar with the world. Kinaesthesia provides a key
for understanding our relation to the world. The author thus
suggests that thinkers in the vein of Husserl and Kant -who, for
Heidegger, epitomize the tradition of modern philosophy by
returning to a "worldless subject"- may provide us with the
resources to reclaim the phenomenon of the world that "Being and
Time" sets out to salvage.
Alweiss's fresh and innovative study demonstrates that it is
possible to overcome epistemological skepticism without ever losing
sight of the phenomenon of the world. Moreover, Alweiss challenges
us to reconsider the relation between Husserl and Heidegger by
providing a forceful defense of Husserl's critique of cognition.
This edited volume offers a new approach to understanding social
conventions by way of Martin Heidegger. It connects the
philosopher's conceptions of the anyone, everydayness, and
authenticity with an analysis and critique of social normativity.
Heidegger's account of the anyone is ambiguous. Some see it as a
good description of human sociality, others think of it as an
important critique of modern mass society. This volume seeks to
understand this ambiguity as reflecting the tension between the
constitutive function of conventions for human action and the
critical aspects of conformism. It argues that Heidegger's anyone
should neither be reduced to its pejorative nor its constitutive
dimension. Rather, the concept could show how power and norms
function. This volume would be of interest to scholars and students
of philosophy and the social sciences who wish to investigate the
social applications of the works of Martin Heidegger.
A collection of essays which explores the significance of
Wittgenstein for the Philosophy of Religion. Explorations of
central notions in Wittgenstein's later philosophy are brought to
bear on the clash between belief and atheism; understanding
religious experience; language and ritual; evil and theodicies;
miracles; and the possibility of a Christian philosophy.
This book begins with an observation: At the time when empiricism
arose and slowly established itself, the word itself had not yet
been coined. Hence the central question of this volume: What does
it mean to conduct empirical science in early modern Europe? How
can we catch the elusive figure of the empiricist? Our answer
focuses on the practices established by representative scholars.
This approach allows us to demonstrate two things. First, that
empiricism is not a monolith but exists in a plurality of forms.
Today's understanding of the empirical sciences was gradually
shaped by the exchanges among scholars combining different
traditions, world views and experimental settings. Second, the long
proclaimed antagonism between empiricism and rationalism is not the
whole story. Our case studies show that a very fruitful exchange
between both systems of thought occurred. It is a story of
integration, appropriation and transformation more than one of mere
opposition. We asked twelve authors to explore these fascinating
new facets of empiricisms. The plurality of their voices mirrors
the multiple faces of the concept itself. Every contribution can be
understood as a piece of a much larger puzzle. Together, they help
us better understand the emergence of empiricism and the
inventiveness of the scientific enterprise.
This book offers a clear, analytic, and innovative interpretation
of Heidegger's late work. This period of Heidegger's philosophy
remains largely unexplored by analytic philosophers, who consider
it filled with inconsistencies and paradoxical ideas, particularly
concerning the notions of Being and nothingness. This book takes
seriously the claim that the late Heidegger endorses dialetheism -
namely the position according to which some contradictions are true
- and shows that the idea that Being is both an entity and not an
entity is neither incoherent nor logically trivial. The author
achieves this by presenting and defending the idea that reality has
an inconsistent structure. In doing so, he takes one of the most
discussed topics in current analytic metaphysics, grounding theory,
into a completely unexplored area. Additionally, in order to make
sense of Heidegger's concept of nothingness, the author introduces
an original axiomatic mereological system that, having a
paraconsistent logic as a base logic, can tolerate inconsistencies
without falling into logical triviality. This is the first book to
set forth a complete and detailed discussion of the late Heidegger
in the framework of analytic metaphysics. It will be of interest to
Heidegger scholars and analytic philosophers working on theories of
grounding, mereology, dialetheism, and paraconsistent logic.
This book defines the relationship between the thought of Adam Smith and that of the ancients---Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and the Stoics. Vivenza offers a complete survey of all Smith's writings with the aim of illustrating how classical arguments shaped opinions and scholarship in the eighteenth century.
In Of Liberty and Necessity James A. Harris presents the first
comprehensive account of the free will problem in
eighteenth-century British philosophy. Harris proposes new
interpretations of the positions of familiar figures such as Locke,
Hume, Edwards, and Reid. He also gives careful attention to writers
such as William King, Samuel Clarke, Anthony Collins, Lord Kames,
James Beattie, David Hartley, Joseph Priestley, and Dugald Stewart,
who, while well-known in the eighteenth century, have since been
largely ignored by historians of philosophy. Through detailed
textual analysis, and by making precise use of a variety of
different contexts, Harris elucidates the contribution that each of
these writers makes to the eighteenth-century discussion of the
will and its freedom. In this period, the question of the nature of
human freedom is posed principally in terms of the influence of
motives upon the will. On one side of the debate are those who
believe that we are free in our choices. A motive, these
philosophers believe, constitutes a reason to act in a particular
way, but it is up to us which motive we act upon. On the other side
of the debate are those who believe that, on the contrary, there is
no such thing as freedom of choice. According to these
philosophers, one motive is always intrinsically stronger than the
rest and so is the one that must determine choice. Several
important issues are raised as this disagreement is explored and
developed, including the nature of motives, the value of
'indifference' to the will's freedom, the distinction between
'moral' and 'physical' necessity, the relation between the will and
the understanding, and the internal coherence of the concept of
freedom of will. One of Harris's primary objectives is to place
this debate in the context of the eighteenth-century concern with
replicating in the mental sphere what Newton had achieved in the
philosophy of nature. All of the philosophers discussed in Of
Liberty and Necessity conceive of themselves as 'experimental'
reasoners, and, when examining the will, focus primarily upon what
experience reveals about the influence of motives upon choice. The
nature and significance of introspection is therefore at the very
centre of the free will problem in this period, as is the question
of what can legitimately be inferred from observable regularities
in human behaviour.
This volume presents political phenomenology as a new specialty in
western philosophical and political thought that is post-classical,
post-Machiavellian, and post-behavioral. It draws on history and
sets the agenda for future explorations of political issues. It
discloses crossroads between ethics and politics and explores
border-crossing issues. All the essays in this volume challenge
existing ideas of politics significantly. As such they open new
ways for further explorations BY future generations of
phenomenologists and non-phenomenologists alike. Moreover, the
comprehensive chronological bibliography is unprecedented and
provides not only an excellent picture of what phenomenologists
have already done but also a guide for the future.
This is the first volume dedicated to a direct exploration of
Wittgenstein and Plato. It is a compilation of essays by thirteen
authors of diverse geographical provenance, orientation and
philosophical interest.
The volume offers the most complete and detailed view to date on
Wittgenstein and Plato, without being tied to any unilateral
guidelines from either a critical or philosophical perspective. The
authors are scholars of Wittgenstein, but also of Plato and Greek
philosophy. The book is a sort of game of mirrors: Plato in the
mirror of Wittgenstein, and Wittgenstein in the mirror of Plato.
All essays always seek to combine philosophical interest and
philological attention, although, in some essays one interest
prevails over the other.
Despite the preponderance of scholars of Wittgenstein, the volume
seeks to be not only a book on Wittgenstein and Plato, but also,
simultaneously, on Plato and Wittgenstein.
Kevin Hermberg's book fills an important gap in previous Husserl
scholarship by focusing on intersubjectivity and empathy (i.e., the
experience of others as other subjects) and by addressing the
related issues of validity, the degrees of evidence with which
something can be experienced, and the different senses of
'objective' in Husserl's texts. Despite accusations by commentators
that Husserl's is a solipsistic philosophy and that the
epistemologies in Husserl's late and early works are contradictory,
Hermberg shows that empathy, and thus other subjects, are related
to one's knowledge on the view offered in each of Husserl's
Introductions to Phenomenology. Empathy is significantly related to
knowledge in at least two ways, and Husserl's epistemology might,
consequently, be called a social epistemology: (a) empathy helps to
give evidence for validity and thus to solidify one's knowledge,
and (b) it helps to broaden one's knowledge by giving access to
what others have known. These roles of empathy are not at odds with
one another; rather, both are at play in each of the Introductions
(if even only implicitly) and, given his position in the earlier
work, Husserl needed to expand the role of empathy as he did. Such
a reliance on empathy, however, calls into question whether
Husserl's is a transcendental philosophy in the sense Husserl
claimed.
In this brief and accessible introduction, Russell guides the
reader through his famous 1910 distinction between "knowledge by
acquaintance and knowledge by description" and introduces important
theories of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Locke, Kant, Hegel
and others. He lays the foundation for philosophical inquiry for
general readers and scholars.There are sixteen chapters: Appearance
and Reality, The Existence of Matter, The Nature of Matter,
Idealism, Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description,
On Induction, On Our Knowledge Of General Principles, How A Priori
Knowledge Is Possible, The World of Universals, On Our Knowledge of
Universals, On Intuitive Knowledge, Truth and Falsehood, Knowledge,
Error, and Probable Opinion, The Limits of Philosophical Knowledge,
The Value of Philosophy. Russell also provides a short
supplementary reading list.
One hundred years ago, Russell and Whitehead published their
epoch-making Principia Mathematica (PM), which was initially
conceived as the second volume of Russell's Principles of
Mathematics (PoM) that had appeared ten years before. No other
works can be credited to have had such an impact on the development
of logic and on philosophy in the twentieth century. However, until
now, scholars only focused on the first parts of the books - that
is, on Russell's and Whitehead's theory of logic, set-theory and
arithmetic.
Sebastien Gandon aims at reversing the perspective. His goal is to
give a picture of Russell's logicism based on a detailed reading of
the developments dealing with advanced mathematics - namely
projective geometry and the theory of quantity. This book is not
only the first study ever made of the 'later' portions of PoM and
PM, it also shows how this shift of perspective compels us to
change our view of the logicist program taken as a whole.
The history of interwar Polish logic, including philosophical
logic, is still a relatively little known area, especially if
compared with the movement's well-documented contemporaries - the
Vienna Circle or the Berlin Circle, for instance. The book aims to
address this lacuna, by presenting the state of the art of research
into this part of the history of analytic philosophy. It comprises
thirteen essays, written by outstanding philosophers and
exemplifying different approaches to the history of philosophy. One
approach focuses on some little known aspects of Polish philosophy
(e.g., Lesniewski's arithmetic, Tarski's geometry, philosophy of
mathematics in interwar Krakow), analyzing it in great detail,
sometimes by using current formal techniques. Another group of
papers looks at the inspiration the Poles got from the founding
fathers of analytic philosophy (Frege, Husserl, Wittgenstein), and
locates Polish philosophy in the larger landscape of European
analytic philosophy. Finally, some contributors pick a topic from
the Polish school (sometimes only mentioned, but not developed by
the Poles), and construct an alternative account which is then
compared with the earlier account. Most of the papers were
presented at a symposium celebrating the 70th birthday of Jan
Wolenski, whose book "Logic and Philosophy of the Lvov-Warsaw
School" has played a substantial role in sparking contemporary
interest in Polish analytic philosophy.
A comprehensive and accessible overview of, and introduction to,
the work of one of the twentieth century's most influential
philosophers, Martin Heidegger, by one of the world's foremost
Heidegger scholars. Martin Heidegger's work is pivotal in the
history of modern European philosophy. The New Heidegger presents a
comprehensive and stimulating overview of, and introduction to, the
work of one of the most influential and controversial philosophers
of our time. Heidegger has had an extraordinary impact on
contemporary philosophical and extra-philosophical life: on
deconstruction, hermeneutics, ontology, technology and
techno-science, art and architecture, politics, psychotherapy, and
ecology. The New Heidegger takes a thematic approach to Heidegger's
work, covering not only the seminal Being and Time, but also
Heidegger's lesser-known works. Lively, clear and succinct, the
book requires no prior knowledge of Heidegger and is an essential
resource for anyone studying or teaching the work of this major
modern philosopher.
Richard Campagna and his team of optimistic, pragmatic spiritual,
existentialist merrymakers have done it again. The author(s) set
forth a low-key, workable philosophy of life (replete with DOs and
DON'Ts) drawing from the 60's and 70's and novel practical
approaches as well as personal, professional and political counsel,
developed for the new millennium.
Ranging from the experience of sound through language, music,
religion, and silence, clear examples and illustrations, this text
takes the reader into the important and often overlooked role of
the auditory in human life.
This collection is an attempt by a diverse range of authors to
reignite interest in C.I. Lewis's work within the pragmatist and
analytic traditions. Although pragmatism has enjoyed a renewed
popularity in the past thirty years, some influential pragmatists
have been overlooked. C. I. Lewis is arguably the most important of
overlooked pragmatists and was highly influential within his own
time period. The volume assembles a wide range of perspectives on
the strengths and weaknesses of Lewis's contributions to
metaphysics, epistemology, semantics, philosophy of science, and
ethics.
Irony, humour and the comic play vital yet under-appreciated roles
in Kierkegaard's thought. Focusing upon the Concluding Unscientific
Postscript, this book investigates these roles, relating irony and
humour as forms of the comic to central Kierkegaardian themes. How
does the comic function as a form of 'indirect communication'? What
roles can irony and humour play in the infamous Kierkegaardian
'leap'? Do certain forms of wisdom depend upon possessing a sense
of humour? And is such a sense of humour thus a genuine virtue?
Although pain is one of the most fundamental and unique experiences
we undergo in everyday life, it also constitutes one of the most
enigmatic and frustrating subjects for many scientists. This book
provides a detailed analysis of why this issue is grounded in the
nature of pain itself. It also offers a philosophically driven
solution of how we may still approach pain in a theoretically
compelling and practically useful manner. Two main theses are
defended: (i) Pain seems inscrutable because there exists no
property that is commonly shared by all types of pain and that is
at the same time particular to pain, setting it apart from other
bodily sensations. This applies irrespective of whether we consider
the psychological dimensions, neural networks, causal relations or
biological functions of pain. Consequently, it is impossible to
refer to ideal far-reaching and ideal distinct generalizations on
the matter of pain. (ii) Despite this challenge, by focusing on the
resemblance relations that hold across pains, we can generate
scientific progress in explaining, predicting and treating pain. In
doing so, the book aims to provide a clear conceptual basis for
interdisciplinary communication and a useful heuristic for future
research.
This is an exciting new collection of essays exploring the
relevance of Deleuze and Guattari's work in contemporary aesthetics
and political theory.Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari have
arguably gone further than anyone in contemporary philosophy in
affirming a philosophy of creation, one that both establishes and
encourages a clear ethical imperative: to create the new.In this
remarkable undertaking, these two thinkers have created a fresh
engagement of thought with the world. This important collection of
essays attempts to explore and extend the creative rupture that
Deleuze and Guattari produce in the "Capitalism and Schizophrenia"
project.The essays in this volume, all by leading thinkers and
theorists, extend Deleuze and Guattari's project by offering
creative experiments in constructing new communities - of ideas and
objects, experiences and collectives - that cohere around the
interaction of philosophy, the arts and the political realm.
"Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New" produces new
perspectives on Deleuze and Guattari's work by emphasising its
relevance to the contemporary intersection of aesthetics and
political theory, thereby exploring a pressing contemporary
problem: the production of the new.
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