Download or read book Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline written by Bernard Williams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-09 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can--and what can't--philosophy do? What are its ethical risks--and its possible rewards? How does it differ from science? In Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline, Bernard Williams addresses these questions and presents a striking vision of philosophy as fundamentally different from science in its aims and methods even though there is still in philosophy "something that counts as getting it right." Written with his distinctive combination of rigor, imagination, depth, and humanism, the book amply demonstrates why Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. Spanning his career from his first publication to one of his last lectures, the book's previously unpublished or uncollected essays address metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, as well as the scope and limits of philosophy itself. The essays are unified by Williams's constant concern that philosophy maintain contact with the human problems that animate it in the first place. As the book's editor, A. W. Moore, writes in his introduction, the title essay is "a kind of manifesto for Williams's conception of his own life's work." It is where he most directly asks "what philosophy can and cannot contribute to the project of making sense of things"--answering that what philosophy can best help make sense of is "being human." Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline is one of three posthumous books by Williams to be published by Princeton University Press. In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument was published in the fall of 2005. The Sense of the Past: Essays in the History of Philosophy is being published shortly after the present volume.
Download or read book Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline written by Bernard Williams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of essays in metaphysics, ethics and related branches of philosophy by Bernard Williams, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. Most essays were previously unpublished or relatively unaccessible. All of them are written with his distinctive rigour, imagination and depth.
Download or read book Wisdom written by John Kekes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-29 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, renowned philosopher John Kekes develops and defends a humanistic conception of wisdom as a personal attitude--one that can guide how we face adversities and evaluate the often conflicting possibilities and limits of life in the context in which we live. Wisdom includes basic assumptions about the concrete and constantly changing conditions of life; reflective understanding of how we can rely on reason to evaluate the possibilities open to us and recognize the limits we have no choice but to accept; and it includes depth that enables us to accept that perennial problems are part of the human condition and yet to restrain our false hopes and disenchanted reactions to the vicissitudes of life. The evaluative attitude of wisdom is personal, not theoretical; anthropocentric, not metaphysical; context-dependent, not universal; and humanistic, not scientific. It recognizes that there are many forms of worthwhile lives, and denies that there is one ideal of The Good that everyone should try to approximate. It accepts that all of our beliefs, emotions, and desires are fallible, yet they are correctable provided we are sufficiently critical of them. The resulting conception of wisdom is intended as a contribution to philosophy as a humanistic discipline. It is a radical departure from traditional ways of thinking about wisdom.
Download or read book Doing Philosophy written by Timothy Williamson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-09 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are philosophers trying to achieve? How can they succeed? Does philosophy make progress? Is it in competition with science, or doing something completely different, or neither? Timothy Williamson tackles some of the key questions surrounding philosophy in new and provocative ways, showing how philosophy begins in common sense curiosity, and develops through our capacity to dispute rationally with each other. Discussing philosophy's ability to clarify our thoughts, he explains why such clarification depends on the development of philosophical theories, and how those theories can be tested by imaginative thought experiments, and compared against each other by standards similar to those used in the natural and social sciences. He also shows how logical rigour can be understood as a way of enhancing the explanatory power of philosophical theories. Drawing on the history of philosophy to provide a track record of philosophical thinking's successes and failures, Williamson overturns widely held dogmas about the distinctive nature of philosophy in comparison to the sciences, demystifies its methods, and considers the future of the discipline. From thought experiments, to deduction, to theories, this little book will cause you to totally rethink what philosophy is.
Download or read book Pragmatic Humanism written by Marcus Morgan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-01-29 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is sociology best understood as simply chipping away at our ignorance about society, or does it have broader roles and responsibilities? If so, to what—or perhaps to whom—are these responsibilities? Installing humanity as its epistemological and normative start and endpoint, this book shows how humanism recasts sociology as an activity that does not merely do things, or effect things, but is also self-consciously for something. Rather than resurrecting problematic classical conceptions of humanism, the book instead constructs its arguments on pragmatic grounds, showing how a pragmatic humanism presents an improved picture of both the nature and value of the discipline. This picture is based less around the claim that sociology is capable of providing authoritative revelations about society, and more upon its capacity to offer representations of the social in epistemologically open, transformative, ethical, and hopeful ways. Ultimately, it argues that sociology’s real value can only be disclosed by replacing its image as a discipline aimed towards disinterested social enlightenment with one of itself as a practice both dependent upon, and at its best self-consciously aimed towards, human ends and imperatives. It will appeal to scholars and students across the social sciences, and to those working in social theory, sociology, and philosophy of the social sciences in particular.
Download or read book Humanistic Philosophy written by Petru Stefaroi and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work the sintagm "Humanistic Philosophy" is approached and represented both as a sub-discipline, branch, issue, topic, domain, section, part of (general) Philosophy, but also as a dimension, goal, ideal, value, sense, meaning, vocation, valence of Philosophy as a whole, speaking, therefore, about Philosophy as a Humanistic discipline of knowledge. As a sub-discipline, part of (general) Philosophy, Humanistic Philosophy is focused on, and brings in attention, especially, the category, the value-concept of Human Being, with the meaning of agency, individuality, subject, the person with the attribute of freedom and self-determination, the respect for the human as individual, as a Person, in opposition to the approaches that represent the individual human being as a simple statistical element into a social structure, system, mechanism, in history and/or society. In the second meaning, crucial concepts, syntagms, and ideas-values that are bring in attention, when we speak, therefore, of (general) philosophy as a humanistic discipline are Anthropo-Centrism and Person-Centered Approach in the general process of philosophical knowledge and investigation. Essentially, philosophy as a humanistic discipline, through all its branches, orientations, schools, and methods, is an ethics of the phenomenon, process and act of knowledge in general, and of the philosophical knowledge in particular, an ethics of the human, of the man, of humanity, and, especially, ultimately, a philosophy of the human as a goal, values, ideal, principle of all the processes, acts of knowledge and action, epistemologically and methodologically speaking. *** Regarding the Destination of this book, its design, content and bibliography are made in such a way that to be useful both to the academic/ scientific community, to students, teachers and researchers, and also to the professional community - artists, educators, managers, social workers, psychotherapists, health professionals, human rights activists, activists in the political sphere, etc.
Download or read book The Sense of the Past written by Bernard Williams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-09 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before his death in 2003, Bernard Williams planned to publish a collection of historical essays, focusing primarily on the ancient world. This posthumous volume brings together a much wider selection, written over some forty years. His legacy lives on in this masterful work, the first collection ever published of Williams's essays on the history of philosophy. The subjects range from the sixth century B.C. to the twentieth A.D., from Homer to Wittgenstein by way of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Sidgwick, Collingwood, and Nietzsche. Often one would be hard put to say which part is history, which philosophy. Both are involved throughout, because this is the history of philosophy written philosophically. Historical exposition goes hand in hand with philosophical scrutiny. Insights into the past counteract blind acceptance of present assumptions. In his touching and illuminating introduction, Myles Burnyeat writes of these essays: "They show a depth of commitment to the history of philosophy seldom to be found nowadays in a thinker so prominent on the contemporary philosophical scene." The result celebrates the interest and importance to philosophy today of its near and distant past. The Sense of the Past is one of three collections of essays by Bernard Williams published by Princeton University Press since his death. In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument, selected, edited, and with an introduction by Geoffrey Hawthorn, and Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline, selected, edited, and with an introduction by A. W. Moore, make up the trio.
Download or read book In Defense of Philosophy written by Josef Pieper and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2011-08-08 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an engagement between a great modern philosopher defending classical philosophy against an army of challengers to the very notion of philosophy as classically conceived. It is written very much in the spirit of the scholastic disputations in the medieval universities, which produced the great Summas: a mutual search for truth, a philosophical laboratory, a careful winnowing of each objection. Such objectivity is lamentably rare in contemporary philosophy. In order to combat modern misunderstandings of challenges to the classical concept of philosophy, Pieper shows us the unique and uniquely valuable thing philosophy is as conceived by his masters: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and above all, Aquinas. Along this path he scatters gems of insight, such as: art and religion as Philosophy's defenders; the relationship between philosophy and science; philosophy as "seeing and saying"; and philosophy as rooted in meditation and loving contemplation. Pieper emphasizes that philosophy is something all human beings do, and should be the better for doing.
Download or read book A Secular Age written by Charles Taylor and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.
Download or read book Humanism and Libraries written by André Cossette and published by Library Juice Press, LLC. This book was released on 2009 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andr Cossette's Humanism and Libraries is a concise but rigorous investigation into the foundations of librarianship-its definition and its aims. Philosophical and logical in its approach, it is intended to provide solid ground and unity for professional practice. Though the work was originally published in French in 1976 in Quebec by ASTED, Library Juice Press has found it to have enduring relevance and value, and has therefore made this English translation. The book includes a preface that makes the case for reading a work from the 1970s on library philosophy, and a set of "questions for reflection" following the text.
Download or read book Aristotle s Rhetoric written by David J. Furley and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-08 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the field of philosophy, Plato's view of rhetoric as a potentially treacherous craft has long overshadowed Aristotle's view, which focuses on rhetoric as an independent discipline that relates in complex ways to dialectic and logic and to ethics and moral psychology. This volume, composed of essays by internationally renowned philosophers and classicists, provides the first extensive examination of Aristotle's Rhetoric and its subject matter in many years. One aim is to locate both Aristotle's treatise and its subject within the more general context of his philosophical treatment of other disciplines, including moral and political theory as well as poetics. The contributors also seek to illuminate the structure of Aristotle's own conception of rhetoric as presented in his treatise. The first section of the book, which deals with the arguments of rhetoric, contains essays by M. F. Burnyeat and Jacques Brunschwig. A section treating the status of the art of rhetoric features pieces by Eckart Schütrumpf, Jürgen Sprute, M. M. McCabe, and Glenn W. Most. Essays by John M. Cooper, Stephen Halliwell, and Jean-Louis Labarrière address topics related to rhetoric, ethics, and politics. The final section, on rhetoric and literary art, comprises essays by Alexander Nehamas and André Laks. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Humanist Reason a History an Argument a Plan written by Eric Hayot and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eric Hayot argues that it is time to make a positive case for what the humanities are and what they can become. Humanist Reason lays out a new vision that moves beyond traditional disciplines to demonstrate what the humanities can tell us about our world.
Download or read book On Philosophy and Philosophers written by Richard Rorty and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Philosophers suffer from a peculiar occupational hazard; people are always coming up and asking them just what it is that they do and how they do it. This is not the sort of question that biologists or economists or musicians get asked; people know, pretty well, what they do, and they may or may not be interested in the details. But a philosopher is different - it is very hard to imagine just what he does with his time"--
Download or read book The Philosophical Imagination written by Richard Moran and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of philosophical articles on subjects ranging from aesthetics, the philosophy of mind and action, the first person, to engagements with various contemporary philosophers.
Download or read book Rethinking Knowledge written by Carlo Cellucci and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-18 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph addresses the question of the increasing irrelevance of philosophy, which has seen scientists as well as philosophers concluding that philosophy is dead and has dissolved into the sciences. It seeks to answer the question of whether or not philosophy can still be fruitful and what kind of philosophy can be such. The author argues that from its very beginning philosophy has focused on knowledge and methods for acquiring knowledge. This view, however, has generally been abandoned in the last century with the belief that, unlike the sciences, philosophy makes no observations or experiments and requires only thought. Thus, in order for philosophy to once again be relevant, it needs to return to its roots and focus on knowledge as well as methods for acquiring knowledge. Accordingly, this book deals with several questions about knowledge that are essential to this view of philosophy, including mathematical knowledge. Coverage examines such issues as the nature of knowledge; plausibility and common sense; knowledge as problem solving; modeling scientific knowledge; mathematical objects, definitions, diagrams; mathematics and reality; and more. This monograph presents a new approach to philosophy, epistemology, and the philosophy of mathematics. It will appeal to graduate students and researchers with interests in the role of knowledge, the analytic method, models of science, and mathematics and reality.
Download or read book Philosophy written by Helen Beebee and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-02-25 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We constantly disagree with each other on issues of fundamental importance. Does God exist? Should the latest scientific findings be trusted? Are there innate psychological differences between men and women? In four lively chapters, Beebee and Rush explain philosophy’s role in addressing such questions. They consider what it means to be human, how we should engage in public debate, philosophy’s relationship with science and religion, and the nature of our moral choices. Far from being only an abstract endeavour, philosophy engages with issues on a practical level, and philosophers draw inspiration from real-life situations. At its core, philosophy is about how to live and how to make sense of the world we inhabit. It is a set of tools and techniques for clearly and systematically considering our arguments and uncovering our hidden assumptions, which helps us to make more informed choices about what to believe and how to act. Philosophy is everywhere, and open to everyone.
Download or read book In the Beginning Was the Deed written by Bernard Williams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-09 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Williams is remembered as one of the most brilliant and original philosophers of the past fifty years. Widely respected as a moral philosopher, Williams began to write about politics in a sustained way in the early 1980s. There followed a stream of articles, lectures, and other major contributions to issues of public concern--all complemented by his many works on ethics, which have important implications for political theory. This new collection of essays, most of them previously unpublished, addresses many of the core subjects of political philosophy: justice, liberty, and equality; the nature and meaning of liberalism; toleration; power and the fear of power; democracy; and the nature of political philosophy itself. A central theme throughout is that political philosophers need to engage more directly with the realities of political life, not simply with the theories of other philosophers. Williams makes this argument in part through a searching examination of where political thinking should originate, to whom it might be addressed, and what it should deliver. Williams had intended to weave these essays into a connected narrative on political philosophy with reflections on his own experience of postwar politics. Sadly he did not live to complete it, but this book brings together many of its components. Geoffrey Hawthorn has arranged the material to resemble as closely as possible Williams's original design and vision. He has provided both an introduction to Williams's political philosophy and a bibliography of his formal and informal writings on politics. Those who know the work of Bernard Williams will find here the familiar hallmarks of his writing--originality, clarity, erudition, and wit. Those who are unfamiliar with, or unconvinced by, a philosophical approach to politics, will find this an engaging introduction. Both will encounter a thoroughly original voice in modern political theory and a searching approach to the shape and direction of liberal political thought in the past thirty-five years.
