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Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy
Collected in this 3-in-one omnibus edition are Kant's ground
breaking critiques. The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of
Practical Reason, and The Critique of Judgement. The Critique of
Pure Reason is one of the most influential philosophy books of all
times. Kant's influence on modern perception of reason cannot be
over estimated. Here Kant redefines reason and gives us the tools
to understand reason on two levels: the empirical and the
metaphysical. The Critique of Practical Reason is the second of
Immanuel Kant's three critiques and it deals with Kant's own moral
philosophy and his views on free will. A masterpiece of
philosophical writing. In The Critique of Judgement Kant states
that "Philosophy may be said to contain the principles of the
rational cognition that concepts afford us of things (not merely,
as with logic, the principles of the form of thought in general
irrespective of the objects), and, thus interpreted, the course,
usually adopted, of dividing it into theoretical and practical is
perfectly sound."
This book features more than 20 papers that celebrate the work of
Hajnal Andreka and Istvan Nemeti. It illustrates an interaction
between developing and applying mathematical logic. The papers
offer new results as well as surveys in areas influenced by these
two outstanding researchers. They also provide details on the
after-life of some of their initiatives. Computer science connects
the papers in the first part of the book. The second part
concentrates on algebraic logic. It features a range of papers that
hint at the intricate many-way connections between logic, algebra,
and geometry. The third part explores novel applications of logic
in relativity theory, philosophy of logic, philosophy of physics
and spacetime, and methodology of science. They include such
exciting subjects as time travelling in emergent spacetime. The
short autobiographies of Hajnal Andreka and Istvan Nemeti at the
end of the book describe an adventurous journey from electric
engineering and Maxwell's equations to a complex system of computer
programs for designing Hungary's electric power system, to
exploring and contributing deep results to Tarskian algebraic logic
as the deepest core theory of such questions, then on to
applications of the results in such exciting new areas as
relativity theory in order to rejuvenate logic itself.
Psychoanalysis and the Politics of Family aims to raise a
sophisticated and highly accessible debate around the family,
self-making and the political and cultural implications of
liberation. The text proposes a new way to read the Lacanian theory
of Oedipus and through this reading resituate a series of important
political and theoretical debates that have concerned intellectual
life over the last forty years. It is written with an accessible
style so that both specialists in Lacanian and Marxist theory and a
broader cross-section of readers interested in understanding the
implications of debates across populist and Marxist perspectives
that have occupied the global left since the 2008 economic crash.
The text aims to resituate the way theories of emancipation and
liberation are theorized from a distinctive psychoanalytic and
Lacanian point of view. In resituating the infamous "Oedipus
complex" in a new light, the text re-opens a series of debates with
important theoretical interlocutors, including the influential
American historian and psychoanalytic thinker Christopher Lasch,
whose thought has witnessed a significant renaissance of interest
today, to the staunch critic of Freud and Lacan, Rene Girard, to
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and their widely read
Anti-Oedipus series that disputes the Freudian and Lacanian notions
of Oedipus.
Speculative realism is one of the most talked-about movements in
recent Continental philosophy. It has been discussed widely amongst
the younger generation of Continental philosophers seeking new
philosophical approaches and promises to form the cornerstone of
future debates in the field. This book introduces the contexts out
of which speculative realism has emerged and provides an overview
of the major contributors and latest developments. It guides the
reader through the important questions asked by realism (what can I
know? what is reality?), examining philosophy's perennial questions
in new ways. The book begins with the speculative realist's
critique of 'correlationism', the view that we can never reach what
is real beneath our language systems, our means for perception, or
our finite manner of being-in-the-world. It goes on to critically
review the work of the movement's most important thinkers,
including Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier, and Graham Harman, but
also other important writers such as Jane Bennett and Catherine
Malabou whose writings delineate alternative approaches to the
real. It interrogates the crucial questions these thinkers have
raised and concludes with a look toward the future of speculative
realism, especially as it relates to the reality of time.
Around the globe, contemporary protest movements are contesting the
oligarchic appropriation of natural resources, public services, and
shared networks of knowledge and communication. These struggles
raise the same fundamental demand and rest on the same irreducible
principle: the common. In this exhaustive account, Pierre Dardot
and Christian Laval show how the common has become the defining
principle of alternative political movements in the 21st century.
In societies deeply shaped by neoliberal rationality, the common is
increasingly invoked as the operative concept of practical
struggles creating new forms of democratic governance. In a feat of
analytic clarity, Dardot and Laval dissect and synthesize a vast
repository on the concept of the commons, from the fields of
philosophy, political theory, economics, legal theory, history,
theology, and sociology. Instead of conceptualizing the common as
an essence of man or as inherent in nature, the thread developed by
Dardot and Laval traces the active lives of human beings: only a
practical activity of commoning can decide what will be shared in
common and what rules will govern the common's citizen-subjects.
This re-articulation of the common calls for nothing less than the
institutional transformation of society by society: it calls for a
revolution.
Why care about intellectual humility? What is an intellectual
virtue? How do we know who is intellectually humble? The nature of
intellectual virtues is a topic of ancient interest. But
contemporary philosophy has experienced unparalleled energy and
concern for one particular virtue over the past 30 years:
intellectual humility. Intellectual Humility: An Introduction to
the Philosophy and Science draws on leading research to provide an
engaging and up-to-date guide to understanding what it is and why
it's important. By using ten big questions to introduce the
concept, this introduction presents a vibrant account of the ideas
behind intellectual humility. Covering themes from philosophy,
psychology, education, social science, and divinity, it addresses
issues such as: What human cognition tells us about intellectual
virtues The extent to which traits and dispositions are stable from
birth or learned habits How emotions affect our ability to be
intellectually humble The best way to handle disagreement The
impact intellectual humility has on religion or theological
commitments Written for students taking the University of
Edinburgh's online course, this textbook is for anyone interested
in finding out more about intellectual humility, how it can be
developed and where it can be applied.
Restrictive border protection policies directed toward managing the
flow of refugees coming into neoliberal democracies (and out of
failing nation-states) are a defining feature of contemporary
politics. In this book, Veronica Tello analyses how contemporary
artists-such as Tania Bruguera, Isaac Julien, Rosemary Laing, Dinh
Q. Le, Dierk Schmidt, Hito Steyerl, Lyndell Brown and Charles
Green-negotiate their diverse subject positions while addressing
and taking part in the production of images associated with refugee
experiences and histories. Tello argues that their practices, which
manifest across a range of contexts including Cuba, the United
States, Australia and Europe, represent an emergent, global
paradigm of contemporary art, 'counter-memorial aesthetics'.
Counter-Memorial Aesthetics, Tello argues, is characterized by its
conjunction of heterogeneous signifiers and voices of many times
and places, generating an experimental, non-teleological approach
to the construction of contemporary history, which also takes into
account the complex, disorienting spatial affects of globalization.
Spanning performance art, experimental 'history painting',
aftermath photography and video installation, counter-memorial
aesthetics bring to the fore, Tello argues, how contemporary
refugee flows and related traumatic events critically challenge and
conflict with many existing, tired if not also stubborn notions of
national identity, borders, history and memory. Building on the
writings of such thinkers as Michel Foucault and Jacques Ranciere,
this book offers a useful concept of 'counter-memory' for the
twenty-first century. It shows how counter-memorial aesthetics is
not only central to the nexus of contemporary art and refugee
histories but also how it can offer a way of being critically
present with many other, often interrelated, global crises in the
contemporary era.
This book is mainly concerned with elaborating an account of the
unique theoretical essence and activities of philosophy. What
manner of civilization should modern humans forge? On what
developmental path should a nation embark? What lifestyle should
each individual choose? These are the most fundamental issues of
our time. Profoundly implicit in the choices outlined above is a
deeper question: What are the criteria of choice? An examination of
these criteria is a reflection on the premises constituting
thought, or a critique of the premises underlying thought. Using a
"critique of the premises underlying thought" as the basic idea and
hermeneutic principle in philosophy will open a wider theoretical
space for contemporary philosophy so as to avoid the predicament of
being "pseudo-scientific" or "pseudo-artistic." It will also
present contemporary philosophy with a realistic path of
development for the task of reflecting on the criteria of choice.
This book seeks to formulate concrete philosophical arguments for a
critique of the basic beliefs, logic, modes, concepts, and
philosophical ideas which constitute thought, with the aim of
demonstrating the vigorous self-critique and inexhaustible
theoretical space found in philosophical development. This book
provides a new principle of interpretation for understanding
philosophy and, in turn, uses this principle to develop a critique
of the premises underlying thought, thereby furthering the
contemporary development of philosophy. This book encompasses a
critique of the premises underlying thought, which mainly includes
the basic beliefs, logic, modes, concepts, and philosophical ideas
constituting thought. Such a critique should comprise five aspects:
First, the basic beliefs constituting thought propose a critique of
the identity of thought and being; second, the basic logic
constituting thought refers to a critique of the formal,
intensional, and practical logic of thought; third, the basic modes
constituting thought denote a critique of the basic modes by which
humans comprehend the world, including commonsense, religion, art,
and science; fourth, the basic concepts constituting thought entail
a critique centering on being, the world, history, truth, value,
and other basic concepts; and finally, the philosophical ideas
constituting thought indicate a critique of philosophy itself. A
critique aligned on these five aspects will provide a general
philosophical overview of the premise critique of thought.
This book is written for software product teams that use AI to add
intelligent models to their products or are planning to use it. As
AI adoption grows, it is becoming important that all AI driven
products can demonstrate they are not introducing any bias to the
AI-based decisions they are making, as well as reducing any
pre-existing bias or discrimination. The responsibility to ensure
that the AI models are ethical and make responsible decisions does
not lie with the data scientists alone. The product owners and the
business analysts are as important in ensuring bias-free AI as the
data scientists on the team. This book addresses the part that
these roles play in building a fair, explainable and accountable
model, along with ensuring model and data privacy. Each chapter
covers the fundamentals for the topic and then goes deep into the
subject matter - providing the details that enable the business
analysts and the data scientists to implement these fundamentals.
AI research is one of the most active and growing areas of computer
science and statistics. This book includes an overview of the many
techniques that draw from the research or are created by combining
different research outputs. Some of the techniques from relevant
and popular libraries are covered, but deliberately not drawn very
heavily from as they are already well documented, and new research
is likely to replace some of it.
Patrick Riordan takes a different approach to the questions of
global ethics by following the direction of questioning initially
pioneered by Aristotle. For him the most basic question of ethics
is 'What is the Good Life?' So in the context of contemporary
global ethics the Aristotelian questioner wonders about the good
life on a global scale. "Global Ethics and Global Common Goods"
fills a gap caused by the neglect of the topic of the good in
global ethics.Beginning by outlining answers to questions such as
'What is Good?' and 'Is there a highest good?', chapters follow on
to demonstrate the value of a common good perspective in matters of
universal human rights and their institutions and practices, the
study of international relations and the construction of global
institutions, debates about global justice between cosmopolitanism
and nationalism and other forms of particularism, and of course
debates about globalisation in economic affairs. Philosophical
questions provoked by these debates are identified and pursued,
such as the question of a common human nature which seems
presupposed by the language of universal rights. The possibilities
for politics on a world scale are part of the literature of the
relevant disciplines, but the perspective of the common good adds a
new and distinctive dimension to those debates. The concerns for
global security and the challenges of managing conflict are also
shown to benefit from a rereading in terms of the goods in common
between participants in global political affairs.
Written from the perspective of a practising artist, this book
proposes that, against a groundswell of historians, museums and
commentators claiming to speak on behalf of art, it is artists
alone who may define what art really is. Jelinek contends that
while there are objects called 'art' in museums from deep into
human history and from around the globe - from Hans Sloane's
collection, which became the foundation of the British Museum, to
Alfred Barr's inclusion of 'primitive art' within the walls of
MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art - only those that have been made
with the knowledge and discipline of art should rightly be termed
as such. Policing the definition of art in this way is not to
entrench it as an elitist occupation, but in order to focus on its
liberal democratic potential. Between Discipline and a Hard Place
describes the value of art outside the current preoccupation with
economic considerations yet without resorting to a range of
stereotypical and ultimately instrumentalist political or social
goods, such as social inclusion or education. A wider argument is
also made for disciplinarity, as Jelinek discusses the great
potential as well as the pitfalls of interdisciplinary and
multidisciplinary working, particularly with the so-called
'creative' arts. A passionate treatise arguing for a new way of
understanding art that forefronts the role of the artist and the
importance of inclusion within both the concept of art and the art
world.
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