![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present > Western philosophy, from c 1900 -
A great deal of work in philosophy today is concerned with some aspect of the complex tangle of problems and puzzles roughly labelled the mind-body problem. This book is an introduction to it. It is a readable, lucid and accessible guide that provides readers with authoritative exposition, and a solid and reliable framework which can be built on as needed. The first chapter briefly introduces the subject and moves on to discuss mechanism - the idea that minds are machines - focusing on Searle's Chinese Room argument. The next three chapters discuss dualism, physicalism, and some hard problems for physicalism, especially those concerning phenomenal consciousness. Chapters on behaviourism and functionalism follow. The central mind-body topics are then each given deeper consideration in separate chapters. Intentionality is investigated via Fodor's doctrine of the Language of Thought, taking account of connectionism. The main theories of consciousness are examined and the author's own approach outlined. The concluding chapter briefly resumes the theme of psychological explanation, linking it to further topics. Each chapter ends with a summary of the main points together with suggestions for further reading.
First published in 2002. This is Volume I of six in a series on Epistemology and Philosophy. This essay offers a critical study of the ideas of Emile Meyerson and is intended mainly to present a study of his complete work and to correct a fairly widespread misconception of it for its intrinsic interest. Meyerson's work offers an unusual paradigm in the light of which it is possible to think more clearly about the relevance of psychology to philosophical investigations.
This exciting new book makes a major contribution to Continental philosophy, bringing together for the first time the crucial work on politics by two giants of contemporary French philosophy, Jacques Derrida and Alain Badiou. Derrida has long been recognised as one of the most influential and indeed controversial thinkers in contemporary philosophy and Badiou is fast emerging as a central figure in French thought, as well as in Anglo-American philosophy - his magnum opus, Being and Event, and its long-awaited sequel, Logics of Worlds, have confirmed his position as one of the most significant thinkers working in philosophy today. Both philosophers have devoted a substantial amount of their oeuvre to politics and the question of the nature of the political. Here Antonio Calcagno shows how the political views of these two major thinkers diverge and converge, thus providing a comprehensive exposition of their respective political systems. Both Badiou and Derrida give the event a central role in structuring politics and political thinking and Calcagno advances a theory about the relationship between political events and time that can account for both political undecidability and decidability. This book navigates some very intriguing developments in Continental thought and offers a clear and fascinating account of the political theories of two major contemporary thinkers.
The ideas of the German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer have had considerable influence both in their own right as the leading modern exposition of philosophical hermeneutics and interpreting the works of Heidegger, Plato and Hegel. This work covers the trail of Gadamer's thought. Taking 'Truth and Method' (1960, translated 1975) as the axis of the interpretation of Gadamer's thought, Jean Grondin lays out the key themes of the work - method, humanism, aesthetic judgement, truth, the work of history - with exemplary clarity. Gadamer's concerns are situated in the context of traditional philosophical issues, showing, for example, how Gadamer both continues, and significantly modifies, the philosophical problem as it begins with Descartes and advances rather than simply follows Heidegger's treatment of the relationship of thinking and language. In this way Grondin shows how the issues of philosophical hermeneutics are relevant for contemporary concerns in science and history.
In this study of Hegel's philosophy, Brinkmann undertakes to defend Hegel's claim to objective knowledge by bringing out the transcendental strategy underlying Hegel's argument in the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Logic. Hegel's metaphysical commitments are shown to become moot through this transcendental reading. Starting with a survey of current debates about the possibility of objective knowledge, the book next turns to the original formulation of the transcendental argument in favor of a priori knowledge in Kant's First Critique. Through a close reading of Kant's Transcendental Deduction and Hegel's critique of it, Brinkmann tries to show that Hegel develops an immanent critique of Kant's position that informs his reformulation of the transcendental project in the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the formulation of the position of 'objective thought' in the Science of Logic and the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. Brinkmann takes the reader through the strategic junctures of the argument of the Phenomenology that establishes the position of objective thinking with which the Logic begins. A critical examination of the Introduction to the Lectures on the History of Philosophy shows that Hegel's metaphysical doctrine of the self-externalization of spirit need not compromise the ontological project of the Logic and thus does not burden the position of objective thought with pre-critical metaphysical claims. Brinkmann's book is a remarkable achievement. He has given us what may be the definitive version of the transcendental, categorial interpretation of Hegel. He does this in a clear approachable style punctuated with a dry wit, and he fearlessly takes on the arguments and texts that are the most problematic for this interpretation. Throughout the book, he situates Hegel firmly in his own context and that of contemporary discussion." -Terry P. Pinkard, University Professor, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C, USA "Klaus Brinkmann's important Hegel study reads the Phenomenology and the Logic as aspects of a single sustained effort, in turning from categories to concepts, to carry Kant's Copernican turn beyond the critical philosophy in what constitutes a major challenge to contemporary Cartesianism." - Tom Rockmore, McAnulty College Distinguished Professor, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA "In this compelling reconstruction of the theme of objective thought, Klaus Brinkmann takes the reader through Hegel's dialectic with exceptional philosophical acumen.... Many aspects of this book are striking: the complete mastery of the central tenets of Kant's and Hegel's philosophy, the admirable clarity in treating obscure texts and very difficult problems, and how Brinkmann uses his expertise for a discussion of the problems of truth, objectivity and normativity relevant to the contemporary philosophical debate. This will prove to be a very important book, one that every serious student of Kant and Hegel will have to read." - Alfredo Ferrarin, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
First Published in 2002. It is easy to see that we are living in a time of rapid and radical social change. It is much less easy to grasp the fact that such change will inevitably affect the nature of those disciplines that both reflect our society and help to shape it. Yet this is nowhere more apparent than in the central field of what may, in general terms, be called literary studies. 'New Accents' is intended as a positive response to the initiative offered by such a situation. Each volume in the series will seek to encourage rather than resist the process of change. To stretch rather than reinforce the boundaries that currently define literature and its academic study.
First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
This is Volume II on Personal Statements initially published in 1930. This collection includes essays from John Dewey, Clarence Irving Lewis, WM. Pepperell, Edgar A. Singer Jr, Frederick J.E. Woodbridge and others from the field of contemporary American philosophy.
First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The issue of relativism looms large in many contemporary discussions of knowledge, reality, society, religion, culture and gender. Is truth relative? To what extent is knowledge dependent on context? Are there different logics? Do different cultures and societies see the world differently? And is reality itself something that is constructed? This book offers a path through these debates. O'Grady begins by clarifying what exactly relativism is and how it differs from scepticism and pluralism. He then examines five main types of cognitive relativism: alethic relativism, logical relativism, ontological relativism; epistemological relativism, and relativism about rationality. Each is clearly distinguised and the arguments for and against each are assessed. O'Grady offers a welcome survey of recent debates, engaging with the work of Davidson, Devitt, Kuhn, Putnam, Quine, Rorty, Searle, Winch and Wittgenstein, among others, and he offers a distinct position of his own on this hotly contested issue.
Dieses Buch ist vielleicht nicht das Beste, aber vielleicht doch das Ausserste, was ich gegen Ende eines (gewiss nicht nur) philosophischen Lebens noch zu geben ver- mag: einen Hinweis auf die Frage, womit wir uns eigentlich befassen sollten; als eine Frage, die jedermann schon im alltaglichen Leben angeht, und zugleich als die Frage einer ,Philosophie'. Das Allerausserste ware dann ein Versuch, auch diese Frage selber noch zu be- antworten. Einen solchen Versuch habe ich aber langst schon zuvor unternommen: in meinem Entwurf einer Kritik der Grundlagen des Zeitalters (1974). (Die vorliegende Topik nennt nur die Frage, worauf jene ,Kritik' eine Antwort geben wollte.) In einer Abhandlung uber Okonomie und Metaphysik, an der ich noch arbeite, mache ich noch einen wiederholten Versuch, jene Frage nach Moglichkeit noch deutlicher zu beantworten. Bislang habe ich nur vier ,Werke' zustande gebracht: eines uber Das Grundle- gende und das Wesentliche (1965), von dem ich bis heute noch zehre, die erwahnte Kritik der Grundlagen des Zeitalters, eine Tragik (2001) und die vorliegende Topik. (Der Rest sind nur Aufsatzsammlungen, Vorlesungen, Editionen und Ubersetzun- gen.) Doch habe ich (nebst dem oben erwahnten noch in Arbeit befindlichen Ver- such uber ,Okonomie und Metaphysik') noch zwei weitere Werke anzubieten: eine Politik (fur die ich bis heute noch keinen Verleger gefunden habe) und eine in den siebziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts geschriebene und unvollendet gebliebene Dialektik (die wohl nur nach meinem Tode einer Veroffentlichung fahig ist).
For many years essentialism - the view that some objects have essentially or necessarily certain properties without which they could not exist or be the things they are - was considered to be beyond the pale in philosophy, a relic of discredited Aristotelianism. This is no longer so. Kripke and Putnam have made belief in essential natures once more respectable. Harre and Madden have boldly argued against Hume's theory of causation, and developed an alternative theory based on the assumption that there are genuine causal powers in nature. Dretske, Tooley, Armstrong, Swoyer and Carroll have all developed strong alternatives to Hume's theory of the laws of nature. Shoemaker has developed a thoroughly non-Humean theory of properties. The new essentialism has evolved from these beginnings and can now reasonably claim to be a metaphysic for a modern scientific understanding of the world - one that challenges the conception of the world as comprising passive entities whose interactions are to be explained by appeal to contingent laws of nature externally imposed.
Our competitive, service-oriented societies are taking a toll on the late-modern individual. Rather than improving life, multitasking, "user-friendly" technology, and the culture of convenience are producing disorders that range from depression to attention deficit disorder to borderline personality disorder. Byung-Chul Han interprets the spreading malaise as an inability to manage negative experiences in an age characterized by excessive positivity and the universal availability of people and goods. Stress and exhaustion are not just personal experiences, but social and historical phenomena as well. Denouncing a world in which every against-the-grain response can lead to further disempowerment, he draws on literature, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences to explore the stakes of sacrificing intermittent intellectual reflection for constant neural connection.
This volume presents a series of essays which investigate the nature of intellectual inquiry: what its aims are and how it operates. The starting-point is the work of the American Pragmatists C. S. Peirce and John Dewey. Inquiry according to Peirce is a struggle to replace doubt by true belief. Dewey insisted that the transformation was from an indeterminate situation to a determinate or non-problematic one. So Isaac Levi's subject is changes in doxastic commitments, which may involve changes in attitudes or changes in situations in which attitudes are entangled. The question what justifies modification of doxastic commitments is a normative one, and so may not be understandable in purely naturalistic terms.
|
You may like...
CompTIA Linux+ Certification All-in-One…
Ted Jordan, Sandor Strohmayer
Paperback
R1,054
Discovery Miles 10 540
The Daily Stoic - 366 Meditations on…
Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
Paperback
(4)
Improving the Stability of Meshed Power…
Robin Preece
Hardcover
Spirit of the West - Cooking from Ranch…
Martin Jacobs, Cox Beverly
Hardcover
R1,573
Discovery Miles 15 730
|