The first comprehensive philosophical introduction to risk Includes lots of additional features: text boxes, chapter summaries, study questions, review questions Most books cover either the science or ethics of risk: ours does both Packed with examples such as the nuclear industry, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and risk in health and medicine Explains philosophical concepts and paradoxes about risk, such as Pascal's Wager and the Monte Carlo simulation

Friedrich Waismann was born in Vienna in 1896 and lived there until the time of the Anschluss in 1938. From then until his death in 1959 he lived in England; this, apart from a brief period at Cambridge early on, was almost wholly at Oxford, \,Vhere he held the posts, first, or reader in the philosophy of mathematics and then of reader in the philosophy of science. He was of Jewish descent -his father being Russian, his mother German. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna and attended the lec- tures of Hahn. Beginning his career as a teacher of mathematics he soon be- came an unofficial assistant to Moritz Schlick. It was Schlick's concern to see that the new philosophical ideas developed by Wittgenstein from the time of his return to philosophy in the later 1920s were made public that de- termined the subsequent shape of Waismann's activities. Until the out- break of the war in 1939 his main task was the preparation of a book in which Wittgenstein's thought was to be systematically expounded. Be- tween 1927 and 1935 this project was carried on in close personal conjunc- tion with Wittgenstein. A first version of the planned book, Logik. Sprache. Philosophie seems to have been completed by 1931. A very differ- ent version came to England with Waismann in 1938. It finally appeared, in an English translation, as Principles of Linguistic Philosophy.

The philosophy of computer science is concerned with issues that arise from reflection upon the nature and practice of the discipline of computer science. This book presents an approach to the subject that is centered upon the notion of computational artefact. It provides an analysis of the things of computer science as technical artefacts. Seeing them in this way enables the application of the analytical tools and concepts from the philosophy of technology to the technical artefacts of computer science. With this conceptual framework the author examines some of the central philosophical concerns of computer science including the foundations of semantics, the logical role of specification, the nature of correctness, computational ontology and abstraction, formal methods, computational epistemology and explanation, the methodology of computer science, and the nature of computation. The book will be of value to philosophers and computer scientists.

The Routledge Companion to Pragmatism offers 44 cutting-edge chapters-written specifically for this volume by an international team of distinguished researchers-that assess the past, present, and future of pragmatism. Going beyond the exposition of canonical texts and figures, the collection presents pragmatism as a living philosophical idiom that continues to devise promising theses in contemporary debates. The chapters are organized into four major parts: Pragmatism's history and figures Pragmatism and plural traditions Pragmatism's reach Pragmatism's relevance Each chapter provides up-to-date research tools for philosophers, students, and others who wish to locate pragmatist options in their contemporary research fields. As a whole, the volume demonstrates that the vitality of pragmatism lies in its ability to build upon, and transcend, the ideas and arguments of its founders. When seen in its full diversity, pragmatism emerges as one of the most successful and influential philosophical movements in Western philosophy.

An NRC Handelsblad Book of the Year "Offers rich discussions of olfactory perception, the conscious and subconscious impacts of smell on behavior and emotion." -Science Decades of cognition research have shown that external stimuli "spark" neural patterns in particular regions of the brain. We think of the brain as a space we can map: here it responds to faces, there it perceives a sensation. But the sense of smell-only recently attracting broader attention in neuroscience-doesn't work this way. So what does the nose tell the brain, and how does the brain understand it? A. S. Barwich turned to experts in neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, and perfumery in an effort to understand the mechanics and meaning of odors. She discovered that scents are often fickle, and do not line up with well-defined neural regions. Upending existing theories of perception, Smellosophy offers a new model for understanding how the brain senses and processes odors. "A beguiling analysis of olfactory experience that is fast becoming a core reference work in the field." -Irish Times "Lively, authoritative...Aims to rehabilitate smell's neglected and marginalized status." -Wall Street Journal "This is a special book...It teaches readers a lot about olfaction. It teaches us even more about what philosophy can be." -Times Literary Supplement

This book offers a close and rigorous examination of the arguments for and against scientific realism and introduces key positions in the scientific realism/antirealism debate, which is one of the central debates in contemporary philosophy of science. On the one hand, scientific realists argue that we have good reasons to believe that our best scientific theories are approximately true because, if they were not even approximately true, they would not be able to explain and predict natural phenomena with such impressive accuracy. On the other hand, antirealists argue that the success of science does not warrant belief in the approximate truth of our best scientific theories. This is because the history of science is a graveyard of theories that were once successful but were later discarded. The author eventually settles on a middle-ground position between scientific realism and antirealism called "relative realism".

Michael Tooley presents a major new philosophical study of time and its relation to causation. The nature of time has always been one of the most fascinating and perplexing problems of philosophy; it has in recent years become the focus of vigorous debate between advocates of rival theories. The traditional, `tensed' accounts of time which hold that time has a direction and that the flow of time is part of the nature of the universe have been challenged by `tenseless' accounts of time, according to which past, present, and future are merely subjective features of experience, rather than objective features of events. Time, Tense and Causation offers a new approach, in many ways intermediate between these two rivals. Tooley shares with tensed approaches the views that the universe if dynamic, and that the past and present are real while the future is not; but he rejects the view that this points to the existence of irreducible tensed facts. Tooley's approach accounts for time in terms of its relation to causation; he argues that the direction of time is based upon the direction of causation, and that the key to understanding the dynamic nature of the universe is to understand the nature of causation. He analyses tensed concepts, and discusses semantic issues about truth and time, Finally, addressing the formidable difficulties posed for tensed accounts of time by the Special Theory of Relativity, he suggests that a modified version of the theory, compatible with the account of time in this book, is to be preferred to the standard version. Time, Tense, and Causation is rich in sophisticated and stimulating discussions of many of the deepest problems of metaphysics. It will be essentail reading for anyone specialising in this area of philosophy.

This edited book presents the problems of time and direction from an interdisciplinary point of view, concentrating in particular on the following relations: * Time and physics * Time, philosophy and psychology * Time, mathematics and information theory It is a unique contribution by philosophers and scientists who are active in mathematics, physics, biology, engineering, information theory and psychology. Questions such as the existence of a Big Bang, the neurobiological basis regarding the coexistence of free will and determinism, intercultural aspects of time, mathematical models of time, psychopathological features of time, and micro reversibility versus macroscopic irreversibility are studied. It also provides a truly interdisciplinary study of the problematic 'arrow of time'.

This book deeply analyzes the theoretical roots of the development of global artificial intelligence ethics and AI governance, the ethical issues in AI application scenarios, and the discussion of artificial intelligence governance issues from a global perspective. From the perspective of knowledge, the book includes not only the metaphysical research of traditional Western ethics, but also the interpretation of AI-related practical cases and international policies. The purpose of this book is not only to study AI ethics and governance issues academically, but to seek a path to solve problems in the real world. It is a very meaningful monograph in both academic theory and reality. This book responds to the implementation of China's digital economy governance and other topics. It is a cutting-edge academic monograph that combines industry, policy, and thought. In this book, the author not only discusses the humanities thoughts such as ethics, political economy, philosophy, and sociology, but also involves computer science, biology, and medicine and other science and engineering disciplines, effectively using interdisciplinary thinking as readers clarify how to explore ethical consensus and establish smart social governance rules in the era of artificial intelligence, so as to provide the most comprehensive and unique scientific and technological insights for smart economy participants, related practitioners in the artificial intelligence industry, and government policy makers. For academia, this is a representative book of Chinese scholars' systematic thinking on AI ethical propositions from a global perspective. For the industry, this is a book that understands the policies and ethical propositions faced by the development of AI industry. An important reference book, for policy makers, this is a monograph for understanding how policies in the AI industry make decisions that conform to AI industry practices and people's moral order.

This book bridges the gap between the many insights into art provided by research in evolutionary theory, psychology and neuroscience and those enduring normative issues best addressed by philosophy. The sciences have helped us understand how art functions, our art preferences, and the neurological systems underlying our engagement with art. But we continue to rely on philosophy to tell us what is truly good in art, how we should engage with art, and the conceptual basis for this engagement. Naturalized Aesthetics: A Scientific Framework for the Philosophy of Art integrates a systematic and comprehensive naturalism, grounded in the sciences, with an "ecology" of art. It shows how the environments in which we make and experience art - our "engineered art niches" - affect the practice and experience of art and generate normativity - the goods and the shoulds - in our engagement with art. There are, in effect, two "streams" of normativity, according to this book: a niche-dependent, social, impersonal and objective stream and a niche-independent, individual, personal and subjective stream. Recognition of these two streams allows us to make progress in long-standing and unresolved philosophical disputes about how to interpret, evaluate and conceive art. Key Features: Provides a structured and critical introduction to the scientific accounts of art based on evolutionary thinking, psychology and neuroscience. Develops an "ecology" of art based on the insight that we engage with art in engineered niches. Presents a naturalistic account of normativity based on the recognition of two streams: a niche-dependent, social, impersonal and objective stream; and a niche-independent, individual, personal and subjective stream. Serves as an introduction and critical analysis of the debates about the interpretation, evaluation and definitions of art.

The book is a translation of the second edition of a much-used and research-based Chinese textbook. As a succinct and issue-based introduction to the Western philosophy of science, the book brings eight focal issues in the field to the fore and augments each topic by incorporating Chinese perspectives. Followed by an overview of the historical framework and logical underpinnings of the philosophy of science, the book thoroughly discusses eight issues in the discipline: (1) the criteria of cognitive meaning, (2) induction and confirmation, (3) scientific explanation, (4) theories of scientific growth, (5) the demarcation between science and pseudoscience, (6) scientific realism and empiricism; (7) the philosophy of scientific experimentation, (8) science and value. Not confined to Western mainstream discourse in this field, the book also introduces voices of Chinese philosophers of note and adopts a stance that productively combines logical empiricism and Kuhnianism, both of which tend to be covered in less detail by many English language textbooks. In the final chapter the author offers a prognosis regarding the future of the discipline based on recent trends. This book will be of value to students who study philosophy of science and hope to gain a better understanding of science and technology.

This book analyzes the Internet from the perspective of philosophy of science. Conceived in a broad sense, it includes three major layers: (i) the technological infrastructure, (ii) the Web, and (iii) cloud computing, along with apps and mobile Internet.

The book ranges widely through eight different keywords in current Translation Studies: Agency, Difference (the ethics of), Eurocentrism (attitudes toward), Hermeneutics, Language, Norms, Rhetoric, and World Literature. It features an expanded behavioral-economic exploration of attitudes of and toward Masculine and Feminine Econs, Masculine and Feminine Humans, and Queer Humans. It draws heavily on crip-queer disability studies, especially autists/allists as translators. It features literary case studies that complicate the main arguments in each keyword.

Offers the latest research on the topic.

The texts of Boris Hessen and Henryk Grossmann assembled in this volume are important contributions to the historiography of the Scienti?c Revolution and to the methodology of the historiography of science. They are of course also historical documents, not only testifying to Marxist discourse of the time but also illustrating typical European fates in the ?rst half of the twentieth century. Hessen was born a Jewish subject of the Russian Czar in the Ukraine, participated in the October Revolution and was executed in the Soviet Union at the beginning of the purges. Grossmann was born a Jewish subject of the Austro-Hungarian Kaiser in Poland and served as an Austrian of?cer in the First World War; afterwards he was forced to return to Poland and then because of his revolutionary political activities to emigrate to Germany; with the rise to power of the Nazis he had to ?ee to France and then Americawhilehisfamily, whichremainedinEurope, perishedinNaziconcentration camps. Our own acquaintance with the work of these two authors is also indebted to historical context (under incomparably more fortunate circumstances): the revival of Marxist scholarship in Europe in the wake of the student movement and the p- fessionalization of history of science on the Continent. We hope that under the again very different conditions of the early twenty-?rst century these texts will contribute to the further development of a philosophically informed socio-historical approach to the study of scienc

Rudolf Carnap was born on May 18, 1891, and Hans Reichenbach on September 26 in the same year. They are two of the greatest philosophers of this century, and they are eminent representatives of what is perhaps the most powerful contemporary philosophical movement. Moreover, they founded the journal Erkenntnis. This is ample reason for presenting, on behalf of Erkenntnis, a collection of essays in honor of them and their philosophical work. I am less sure, however, whether it is a good time for resuming their philosophical impact; their work still is rather part than historical basis of the present philosophical melting-pot. Their basic philosophical theses have currently, it may seem, not so high a standing, but their impact can be seen in numerous detailed issues; they have opened or pushed forward lively fields of research which are still very actively pursued not only within philosophy, but also in many neighboring disciplines. Whatever the present balance of opinions about their philosophical ideas, there is something even more basic in their philosophy than their tenets which is as fresh, as stimulating, as exemplary as ever. I have in mind their way of philosophizing, their conception of how to do philosophy. It is always a good time for reinforcing that conception; and if this volume would manage to do so, it would fully serve its purpose.

The book is a comprehensive introduction to the work of the Estonian-German biologist Jakob von Uexkull. After a first introductory chapter by Morten Tonnessen and a second chapter on Uexkull's life and philosophical background, it contains four chapters devoted to the analysis of his main works. They are followed by a vast eighth chapter which deals with the influence Uexkull had on other philosophers and scientists. Finally, the author discloses his conclusions, focused on the possibility of updating Uexkull's work. As far as the key issue is concerned, the Uexkullian Umwelt is the perceptive and operative world which surrounds animal species; it is a subjective species-specific construction which provides living organisms with great security and behaviour stability. The relationship that the animal carries out with its environment is a complex system of semiotic interactions: its behaviour is not a set of mechanical reactions, but a spontaneous attribution of meaning to the outside world.

Chapter 1: The epistemological problem of scientific objectivity.- Chapter 2: Axiomatic thought and philosophy from neo-scholasticism to neo-realism.- Chapter 3: For a historical-critical epistemology. From the critique of epistemology to critical epistemology.- Chapter 4: Language and ontology between science and hermeneutics.- Chapter 5: The axiological dimensions of scientific research.- Chapter 6: The ideal models and the problem of the scientific method.- Chapter 7: Epistemology as hermeneutics of knowledge.- Chapter 8: Pragmatism and Objectivity.

Key Features A timely book for a still pressing problem Contributions by many of the leading figures in the debate. Summarizes the many new contributions to the field of recent years. For the use of upper level seminars and courses A dialogue format will generate further discussion

Drawing on debates from traditional and postmodern thoughts on science and technology, the title builds a new theoretical framework to reconsider science and technology, integrating the opposing viewpoints that either justify science or negate it. As the third volume of a three-volume set that proposes to reconsider science and technology and explores how the philosophy of science and technology responds to an ever-changing world, this final volume seeks to restore the cultural implications of science. Across the six chapters, the authors probe the prospect of a pluralistic scientific culture, including discussions of diversified value choices, the tension between reason and unreason, other binary characteristics of scientific knowledge, including objectivity and uniqueness, universality and locality, as well as the loss, awakening and reconstruction of scientific culture. The authors call for a transformation of scientific culture from a dominant culture to an affirmative one and envision a free and open world of science and technology. The volume will appeal to scholars and students interested in the philosophy of science and technology, the ideology of scientism and anti-scientism, modernism and postmodernism, Marxist philosophy and topics related to scientific culture.

Review of philosophical classics, particularly the works of Marx Logical and reasoned analysis, in combination with reality Reflections on the problems brought about by science and technology

This book provides an up-to-date overview of the foundations of spacetime physics. It features original essays written by world-class experts in the physics and philosophy of spacetime. The foundational questions regarding the origin and nature of spacetime are branching into new and exciting directions. These questions are not restricted to the quantum gravity program but also arise in the context of a well-established theory like general relativity. Against the background of these quick and diverse developments, this volume features a broad range of perspectives on spacetime. Part I focuses on the nature of spacetime in non-quantum theories, such as Newtonian mechanics and relativity. Part II explores some intriguing conceptual implications of developing a quantum theory of spacetime. The Foundations of Spacetime Physics is an essential resource for scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, and scientific metaphysics.

The essays in this volume are the result of a workshop held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in April, 1979. The assembled group was diverse, comprised of philosophers, economists, and statisticians. But it was not the complete group on which we had initially planned. Richard Rudner was in France on sabbatical and was unable to fly back for the occa sion. His untimely death the following summer saddened us all, for we lost not just a colleague but a friend. This book is dedicated to him out of the spirit of friendship and in appreciation for the ground breaking work he did in the philosophy of the social sciences. In addition to the participants, a number of people worked very hard to make our gathering possible. We are especially indebted to Dean Henry Bauer, Dean Ernie Stout and Dean John Ballweg of the College of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Tech for their good will and support, both moral and substantive. We would also like to thank Professor Guy Hammond, Head, Department of Philosophy and Religion, for his council and assistance. Our special thanks to Jeanne Keister and Betty Davis for their patience with unending typing and reservations, and finally to Barbara Kersey, always at hand, ever helpful. Without them nothing would have transpired."