Download or read book Is Philosophy Dispensable written by Nicholas Rescher and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During 2005-2006 I continued my longstanding practice of writing occasional studies on philosophical topics, both for formal presentation and for informal discussion with colleagues. While my forays of this kind have usually issued in journal publications, this has not been so in the preset case so that the studies offered here encompass substantially new material. Notwithstanding their thematic variation, they manifest a uniformity of treatment and method in a way that is characteristic of my philosophical modus operandi and inherent is its endeavors to treat classical issues from novel points of view.' Nicholas Rescher

Download or read book Philosophy in a Meaningless Life written by James Tartaglia and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-12-17 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Philosophy in a Meaningless Life provides an account of the nature of philosophy which is rooted in the question of the meaning of life. It makes a powerful and vivid case for believing that this question is neither obscure nor obsolete, but reflects a quintessentially human concern to which other traditional philosophical problems can be readily related; allowing them to be reconnected with natural interest, and providing a diagnosis of the typical lines of opposition across philosophy's debates. James Tartaglia looks at the various ways philosophers have tried to avoid the conclusion that life is meaningless, and in the process have distanced philosophy from the concept of transcendence. Rejecting all of this, Tartaglia embraces nihilism ('we are here with nothing to do'), and uses transcendence both to provide a new solution to the problem of consciousness, and to explain away perplexities about time and universals. He concludes that with more self-awareness, philosophy can attain higher status within a culture increasingly in need of it.

Download or read book Modernity and the Ideals of Arab Islamic and Western Scientific Philosophy written by A. Z. Obiedat and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-07-08 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first study to compare the philosophical systems of secular scientific philosopher Mario Bunge (1919-2020), and Moroccan Islamic philosopher Taha Abd al-Rahman (b.1945). In their efforts to establish the philosophical underpinnings of an ideal modernity these two great thinkers speak to the same elements of the human condition, despite their opposing secular and religious worldviews. While the differences between Bunge’s critical-realist epistemology and materialist ontology on the one hand, and Taha’s spiritualist ontology and revelational-mystical epistemology on the other, are fundamental, there is remarkable common ground between their scientific and Islamic versions of humanism. Both call for an ethics of prosperity combined with social justice, and both criticize postmodernism and religious conservatism. The aspiration of this book is to serve as a model for future dialogue between holders of Western and Islamic worldviews, in mutual pursuit of modernity’s best-case scenario.

Download or read book Rescher Studies written by Robert Almeder and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a career extending over almost six decades, Nicholas Rescher has conducted researches in almost every principal area of philosophy, historical and systematic alike. In this extraordinary volume, two dozen scholars join in offering penetrating discussions of various facets of Rescher’s investigations. The result is an instructively critical panorama of the many-faceted contributions of this important American philosopher. Born in Germany in 1928, Nicholas Rescher came to the U.S. at the age of nine. He is University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh where he has also served as Chairman of the Philosophy Department and as director (and currently chairman) of the Center for Philosophy of Science. In a productive research career extending over six decades, he has established himself as a systematic philosopher of the old style. His work represents a many-sided approach to fundamental philosophical issues that weaves together threads of thought from continental idealism and American pragmatism. And apart from this larger program Rescher has made various specific contributions to logic (the conception autodescriptive systems of many-sided logic), the history of logic (the medieval Arabic theory of modal syllogistic), to the theory of knowledge (epistemetrics as a quantitative approach in theoretical epistemology), and to the philosophy of science (the theory of a logarithmic retardation of scientific progress). Rescher has also worked in the area of futuristics, and along with Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey is co-inaugurator of the so-called Delphi method of forecasting. Ten books about Rescher’s philosophy have been published in four languages. Rescher earned his doctorate at Princeton in 1951 while still at the age of twenty-two—a record for Princeton’s Department of Philosophy. He has served as a President of the American Philosophical Association, of the American Catholic Philosophy Association, of the American G. W. Leibniz Society, of the C. S. Peirce Society, and of the American Metaphysical Society. He was the founder of the American Philosophical Quarterly. An honorary member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he has been elected to membership in the European Academy of Arts and Sciences (Academia Europaea), the Royal Society of Canada, the Institut International de Philosophie, and several other learned academies. Having held visiting lectureships at Oxford, Constance, Salamanca, Munich, and Marburg, he has been awarded fellowships by the Ford, Guggenheim, and National Science Foundations. Author of some hundred books ranging over many areas of philosophy, over a dozen of them translated from English into other languages, he is the recipient of eight honorary degrees from universities on three continents. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Humanistic Scholarship in 1984, the Belgian Prix Mercier in 2005, and the Aquinas Medal of the American Catholic Philosophical Association in 2007.

Download or read book Theory of Categories written by Dr. Patrick Grim and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Categorization is an essential and unavoidable instrumentality for conceptually navigating a world—indeed for being able to conceptualize a world to be navigated. Classification is a pivotal instrument for scientific systemization, featured as a basis for the philosophical understanding of reality since Aristotle, but classificatory concepts of sorts, types and natural kinds inevitably pervade our understanding of ourselves and our position in the social as well as the natural world at all levels. The authors argue that the character, purpose-, context-, and culture-relativity of categories and categorization have been widely misunderstood—that standard philosophical views are substantially correct in some respects but markedly mistaken in others. The book offers a comprehensive survey of basic principles of classification and categorization, a survey of relevant empirical work, and a multitude of illustrative examples accompanied by instructive analysis of ways and means. The work traces wide-ranging implications of the current approach for philosophical problematic and paradox in philosophy of mind, epistemology and metaphysics, philosophy of science, social philosophy and ethics.

Download or read book The Crisis in Continental Philosophy written by Robert Piercey and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-10-20 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continental philosophy has traditionally seen philosophy as historical, claiming that there are no new beginnings in the discipline, and that we must revisit the work of earlier thinkers again and again. Yet, continental philosophers rarely argue explicitly for their view of philosophy's past, and the discussions of the topic that exist tend to be riddled with confusion. Here, Robert Piercey asks why, and explores what the continental tradition must do to come to terms with this crisis. Piercey traces the confusion about history back to Hegel, who he argues sends a mixed message about historical thinking, one that is later adopted by Heidegger and then passed on to his successors. In addition to telling the story of this crisis, Piercey offers an account of historical thinking that does not lead to the difficulties that currently plague the continental tradition. The result is a highly original look at the development of continental thought and the nature of philosophy's historical turn.

Download or read book An Introduction to Philosophical Methods written by Christopher Daly and published by Broadview Press. This book was released on 2010-07-20 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Introduction to Philosophical Methods is the first book to survey the various methods that philosophers use to support their views. Rigorous yet accessible, the book introduces and illustrates the methodological considerations that are involved in current philosophical debates. Where there is controversy, the book presents the case for each side, but highlights where the key difficulties with them lie. While eminently student-friendly, the book makes an important contribution to the debate regarding the acceptability of the various philosophical methods, and so it will also be of interest to more experienced philosophers.

Download or read book The Philosophy of Philosophy written by Timothy Williamson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-09-27 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The expanded new edition of one of the most influential and controversial books about the nature of philosophy published in the past several decades The Philosophy of Philosophy presents an original, unified concept of philosophy as a non-natural science. In this provocative work, distinguished philosopher Timothy Williamson challenges widely-held assumptions and clarifies long-standing misconceptions about the methodology and nature of philosophical inquiry. The author rejects the standard narratives of contemporary philosophy developed from naturalism, the linguistic turn, postmodern irony, and other prominent trends of the twentieth century. Viewing the method of philosophy as evolving from non-philosophical pursuits, Williamson provides readers with fresh insight into the “self-image” of philosophy and offers new ways of understanding what philosophy is and how it actually works. Now in its second edition, this landmark volume comprises the original book and the author’s subsequent work. New topics include the recent history of analytic philosophy, assessments of experimental philosophy, theories of concepts and understanding, Wittgensteinian approaches, popular philosophy, naturalism, morally-loaded examples in philosophy, philosophical applications of scientific methods, and many more. This edition features the author’s latest thoughts on a variety of issues, autobiographical reflections, and replies to critics. Proposes an alternative narrative about the nature of philosophy Argues that the common assumption of philosophical exceptionalism is false Highlights the similarities between philosophy and the other sciences in both methodology and subject matter Explores why contemporary philosophy has failed to articulate an adequate methodology Emphasizes increasing the methodological standards of reasoning in philosophy The Philosophy of Philosophy, Second Edition remains essential reading for philosophers, scholars, graduate and advanced undergraduate students in philosophy, and other readers with a sustained interest in the method and rationale of the doing of philosophy.

Download or read book Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics written by Georg Hegel and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2004-07-29 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No philosopher has held a higher opinion of art than Hegel, yet nor was any so profoundly pessimistic about its prospects - despite living in the German golden age of Goethe, Mozart and Schiller. For if the artists of classical Greece could find the perfect fusion of content and form, modernity faced complicating - and ultimately disabling - questions. Christianity, with its code of unworldliness, had compromised the immediacy of man's relationship with reality, and ironic detachment had alienated him from his deepest feelings. Hegel's Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics were delivered in Berlin in the 1820s and stand today as a passionately argued work that challenged the ability of art to respond to the modern world.

Download or read book The Powers of Pure Reason written by Alfredo Ferrarin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The goal of the present book is nothing less than to correct what Alfredo Ferrarin calls the standard reading of Kant s. Ferrarin argues that this widespread form of interpretation has failed to do justice to Kant s philosophy primarily because it is rooted in several uncritical and unjustified assumptions. Two are particularly egregious: a compartmentalization of the First Critique, and an isolation of each Critique from the others. Ultimately these two assumptions cause one to lose sight of the fact that the cognitive/epistemological functions laid out in the Transcendental Aesthetic and Analytic are functions of an overarching pure reason of which the constitution of experience (and of a science of nature) is only one problem among others. This book, by contrast, argues that the main problem, which pervades the entire first critique, is the power that reason has to reach beyond itself and legislate over the world. Ferrarin pays close attention to both the Transcendental Dialectic and the Doctrine of Method where Kant lays out his conception of cosmic philosophy as embodied in the ideal philosopher."

Download or read book A Companion to African American Philosophy written by Tommy L. Lott and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This wide-ranging, multidisciplinary collection of newly commissioned articles brings together distinguished voices in the field of Africana philosophy and African-American social and political thought. Provides a comprehensive critical survey of African-American philosophical thought. Collects wide-ranging, multidisciplinary, newly commissioned articles in one authoritative volume. Serves as a benchmark work of reference for courses in philosophy, social and political thought, cultural studies, and African-American studies.

Download or read book Autobiography written by Nicholas Rescher and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicholas Rescher was born in Germany in 1928 and emigrated to the United States shortly before the outbreak of World War II. After training in philosophy at Princeton University he embarked on a long and active career as professor, lecturer, and writer. His many books on a wide variety of philosophical topics have established him as one of the most productive and versatile contributors to 20th century philosophical thought, combining historical and analytical investigators to articulate an amalgam of German idealism with American pragmatism. The book accordingly has two dimensions, both as a contribution to German-American cultural interaction and as a contribution to the history of philosophical ideas

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion written by Esther Eidinow and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook offers both students and teachers of ancient Greek religion a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship in the subject, from the Archaic to the Hellenistic periods. It not only presents key information, but also explores the ways in which such information is gathered and the different approaches that have shaped the area. In doing so, the volume provides a crucial research and orientation tool for students of the ancient world, and also makes a vital contribution to the key debates surrounding the conceptualization of ancient Greek religion. The handbook's initial chapters lay out the key dimensions of ancient Greek religion, approaches to evidence, and the representations of myths. The following chapters discuss the continuities and differences between religious practices in different cultures, including Egypt, the Near East, the Black Sea, and Bactria and India. The range of contributions emphasizes the diversity of relationships between mortals and the supernatural - in all their manifestations, across, between, and beyond ancient Greek cultures - and draws attention to religious activities as dynamic, highlighting how they changed over time, place, and context.

Download or read book The Fragmentation of Being written by Kris McDaniel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fragmentation of Being offers answers to some of the most fundamental questions in ontology. There are many kinds of beings but are there also many kinds of being? The world contains a variety of objects, each of which, let us provisionally assume, exists, but do some objects exist in different ways? Do some objects enjoy more being or existence than other objects? Are there different ways in which one object might enjoy more being than another? Most contemporary metaphysicians would answer "no" to each of these questions. So widespread is this consensus that the questions this book addressed are rarely even raised let alone explicitly answered. But Kris McDaniel carefully examines a wide range of reasons for answering each of these questions with a "yes". In doing so, he connects these questions with many important metaphysical topics, including substance and accident, time and persistence, the nature of ontological categories, possibility and necessity, presence and absence, persons and value, ground and consequence, and essence and accident. In addition to discussing contemporary problems and theories, McDaniel also discusses the ontological views of many important figures in the history of philosophy, including Aquinas, Aristotle, Descartes, Heidegger, Husserl, Kant, Leibniz, Meinong, and many more.

Download or read book How to Play Philosophy written by Michael Picard and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-02-14 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy can transform your life. But the only philosophy that can save you is your own. Yet how do you find your own in an age of misinformation and unbridled spin, when truth is unfashionable and hype hyper-attractive. Where is the air needed to breathe the honest spirit of inquiry? How to Play Philosophy is a breezy array of lyrical, creative essays that explore timeless and timely ideas about who we are, how we live and what we think. MIT-trained philosopher Michael Picard gives airing to numerous philosophers from conflicting traditions and builds an intellectual background to enable readers to draw their own conclusions. Written in a spirit of free and playful inquiry, the essays were composed originally to support public participatory philosophy, or Café Philosophy, which the author has facilitated for decades. Subjects include Play it With Feeling (Desire, Stress, Anger); Games We Play (Intimacy, Loyalty, Betrayal) and Playing Fair (Values, Good, Integrity), alongside epistemological topics including Truth (Knowledge, Certainty, Objectivity) and the perennial metaphysical quandaries (Human Nature, The Sacred, God). Written for everyone interested in exploring age-old subjects in an age of disposable content, How to Play Philosophy offers playful provocations with the aim of enabling independent thinking and deeper public conversations.

Download or read book 50 Christan Books Scripture Theology Philosophy and Spirituality Including Christian Novels written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-11-22 with total page 20247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat presents to you this unique Christianity collection with carefully picked out religious works from the earliest times to modern days, showing the development of Christian religion and spirituality. Scripture: Bible First Clement Second Clement Didache Epistle of Barnabas Shepherd of Hermas The Infancy Gospel of Thomas Apocalypse of Peter History: History of the Christian Church (Philip Schaff) Creeds of Christendom (Philip Schaff) Philosophy of Religion: The Confessions of St. Augustine On the Incarnation (Athanasius) On the Soul and the Resurrection (Gregory of Nyssa) On the Holy Spirit (Basil) Pastoral Care (Gregory I) An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (John of Damascus) Summa Theologica (Saint Thomas Aquinas) The Imitation of Christ (Thomas à Kempis) A Treatise on Christian Liberty (Martin Luther) The Interior Castle (St. Teresa of Ávila) The Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence) The Age of Reason (Thomas Paine) The Natural History of Religion (David Hume) The Religious Affections (Jonathan Edwards) The Essence of Christianity (Ludwig Feuerbach) Beyond Good and Evil (Nietzsche) All of Grace (Charles Spurgeon) Humility (Andrew Murray) Orthodoxy (Chesterton) The Everlasting Man (Chesterton) The Sovereignty of God (Arthur Pink) The Kingdom of God Is Within You (Tolstoy) Religious Fiction: Divine Comedy (Dante) Paradise Lost (John Milton) The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan) Zadig (Voltaire) Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Lew Wallace) Quo Vadis (Henryk Sienkiewicz) In His Steps (Charles M. Sheldon) The Story of the Other Wise Man (Henry Van Dyke) The Ball and the Cross (Chesterton) The Enchanted Barn (Grace Livingston Hill) The Grand Inquisitor (Dostoevsky Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (Goethe) Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Nietzsche) Spirituality: The Conduct of Life (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Lessons in Truth (H. Emilie Cady) As a Man Thinketh (James Allen) Thoughts are Things (Prentice Mulford) The Game of Life and How to Play It (Florence Scovel Shinn)

Download or read book The Philosopher s Index written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 1120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vols. for 1969- include a section of abstracts.