Download or read book Plato at the Googleplex written by Rebecca Goldstein and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is philosophy obsolete? Are the ancient questions still relevant in the age of cosmology and neuroscience, not to mention crowd-sourcing and cable news? The acclaimed philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein provides a dazzlingly original plunge into the drama of philosophy, revealing its hidden role in today’s debates on religion, morality, politics, and science. At the origin of Western philosophy stands Plato, who got about as much wrong as one would expect from a thinker who lived 2,400 years ago. But Plato’s role in shaping philosophy was pivotal. On her way to considering the place of philosophy in our ongoing intellectual life, Goldstein tells a new story of its origin, re-envisioning the extraordinary culture that produced the man who produced philosophy. But it is primarily the fate of philosophy that concerns her. Is the discipline no more than a way of biding our time until the scientists arrive on the scene? Have they already arrived? Does philosophy itself ever make progress? And if it does, why is so ancient a figure as Plato of any continuing relevance? Plato at the Googleplex is Goldstein’s startling investigation of these conundra. She interweaves her narrative with Plato’s own choice for bringing ideas to life—the dialogue. Imagine that Plato came to life in the twenty-first century and embarked on a multicity speaking tour. How would he handle the host of a cable news program who denies there can be morality without religion? How would he mediate a debate between a Freudian psychoanalyst and a tiger mom on how to raise the perfect child? How would he answer a neuroscientist who, about to scan Plato’s brain, argues that science has definitively answered the questions of free will and moral agency? What would Plato make of Google, and of the idea that knowledge can be crowd-sourced rather than reasoned out by experts? With a philosopher’s depth and a novelist’s imagination and wit, Goldstein probes the deepest issues confronting us by allowing us to eavesdrop on Plato as he takes on the modern world. (With black-and-white photographs throughout.)
Download or read book Plato at the Googleplex written by Rebecca Goldstein and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2014 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein provides a dazzlingly original plunge into the drama of philosophy, revealing its hidden role in today's debates on religion, morality, politics, and science.
Download or read book The Anthropocene and the Humanities written by Carolyn Merchant and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide-ranging and original introduction to the Anthropocene that offers fresh, theoretical insights bridging the sciences and the humanities From noted environmental historian Carolyn Merchant, this book focuses on the original concept of the Anthropocene first proposed by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in their foundational 2000 paper. It undertakes a broad investigation into the ways in which science, technology, and the humanities can create a new and compelling awareness of human impacts on the environment. Using history, art, literature, religion, philosophy, ethics, and justice as the focal points, Merchant traces key figures and developments in the humanities throughout the Anthropocene era and explores how these disciplines might influence sustainability in the next century. Wide-ranging and accessible, this book from an eminent scholar in environmental history and philosophy argues for replacing the Age of the Anthropocene with a new Age of Sustainability.
Download or read book Science and Ethics in Dialogue written by Ann Boyd and published by Biota Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book represents my experience teaching graduate students in Biomedical Science at Hood College. Being science majors, the students have a limited background in philosophy and ethics. Most of the graduate students are employed at area research laboratories while also pursuing a Master of Science degree. Their practical day-to-day experience in scientific research is helpful in discussions of responsible conduct of research cases. Being aware of increased cases of misconduct the United States established the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). Their publication, Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research, defines misconduct as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. Concern for the breach of public trust with repercussions in scientific funding has led to mandates for courses in ethics for students pursuing a scientific career. In addition, the Human Genome Project megaproject funded Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Research (www.genome.gov/ELSI/) recognizing that the genetic information produced by the project would come with applied ethical dilemmas. Teaching can be understood as conveying knowledge from generation to generation. Likewise systems of morality are collective acquisitions built up over millennia with social norms and values that aim to maintain social order. Research does not support the premise that knowing the rules of conduct will prevent misconduct. Indeed, compliance with rules can give a false sense of security, especially if the ethical reasoning grounding the rules is not understood. Therefore, I try to sketch a path through the potential phases and avenues of a scientific career, imagining that a person may do basic research, serve on ethics committees, and engage the public in ethical use of new advances in genetics. As a result the content of this text is divided into three parts. The first part deals with foundational material on science and ethics and cases that highlight proper scientific professional conduct. The second part deals with clinical research through which a research discovery is moved to the bedside of patients and the ethical parameters of the transition. The third part sketches the ethical dilemmas evolving from progress in genetic information to clinical applications. Helping students find a moral compass, a grounding of why one ought to behave in ethical ways in their profession and more generally in life is challenging. Doing so increases their awareness and mine of potential dilemmas and how to deal with them ethically.
Download or read book Plato of Athens written by Robin Waterfield and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Plato of Athens is the first-ever biography of the world-famous philosopher. Born into a well-to-do family, he grew up in the increasing gloom of wartime Athens at the end of the fifth century BCE. Alongside a normal Athenian education, in his teens he honed his intellect by attending lectures by the many thinkers who passed through Athens, and toyed with the idea of writing poetry. He finally decided to go into politics, but became disillusioned, especially after the Athenians condemned his teacher, Socrates, to death. Instead he turned to writing and teaching. In 383 he founded the Academy, the world's first higher-educational research and teaching establishment, But he also returned after a while to practical politics and spent a considerable amount of time trying to create a constitution for Syracuse in Sicily that would reflect his political ideals. The attempt failed, and Plato's disappointment can be traced in his later political works"--
Download or read book Plato s Philosophy Reaching Beyond the Limits of Reason written by Harald Haarmann and published by Georg Olms Verlag. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Platon zählt zu den einflussreichsten Philosophen aller Zeiten. Er beeinflusste maßgeblich Profil und Kanon der westlichen Philosophie. Die Kritik am sogenannten Platonismus wurde kontinuierlich von den Schwierigkeiten gespeist, die die Interpretation der philosophischen Schriften Platons bereitet. Gemeinhin wird er als rein rationaler Philosoph gesehen. Ein Philosoph war er in der Tat, ebenso jedoch ein Experte in der Annäherung an das Nicht-Rationale, unter anderem in Form von Mythen. So wurde er auch als "Mythenerfinder" und "Mythologe" bezeichnet. Platon war ein Visionär, der es wagte, das Reich des Nicht-Rationalen auf systematische und disziplinierte Art zu erforschen. Insgesamt lässt sich Platons philosophisches Vorhaben als Streben nach einer umfassenden Sicht des organischen Ganzen klassifizieren. Der Ausdruck „Gestalt“ scheint die Ganzheit am ehesten zu beschreiben. Platon kann als prominentester und auch als letzter Repräsentant der antiken Philosophie angesehen werden, der die Entwicklung einer Gestalt-Philosophie anstrebte. Plato is one of the most influential philosophers of all time. He decisively shaped the profile and canon of western philosophy. Criticism of what has become known as Platonism has been continuously nourished by the difficulties of interpreting this philosopher's writings. Plato is commonly viewed as a purely rational philosopher. A philosopher he was indeed, but Plato was also an expert in approaching the non-rational, in the form of mythology among others. Plato has been called a "mythmaker" and a "mythologist". Plato was a visionary who dared to explore the realm of the non-rational in a systematic and disciplined way. In an overall comparison, Plato's philosophical enterprise strives for a comprehensive perspective on the organic whole. The expression "Gestalt" seems to come closest to describing the wholeness. Plato may be considered to be the most prominent representative of classical philosophy to develop a Gestalt philosophy and also the last to do so in antiquity.
Download or read book Plato written by Lindsay Zoubek and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the greatest thinkers of the ancient world is thoroughly examined in this resource. Readers will be introduced to the concepts and tenets of Plato?s philosophy, his methods of examining and teaching, and his influence on modern philosophy and political thought, including the influence of his philosophies on political systems such as communism. This book also explores Plato?s life and upbringing as a member of the aristocracy and his later life as a teacher who had to flee to escape slavery and death for his beliefs.
Download or read book Great Dialogues of Plato written by Plato and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-03-04 with total page 1404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written in the form of debates, Great Dialogues of Plato comprises the most influential body of philosophy of the Western world—covering every subject from art and beauty to virtue and the nature of love.
Download or read book Reading Plato s Dialogues to Enhance Learning and Inquiry written by Mason Marshall and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-29 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scholarly volume proposes protreptic as a radically new way of reading Plato’s dialogues leading to enhanced student engagement in learning and inquiry. Through analysis of Platonic dialogues including Crito, Euthyphro, Meno, and Republic, the text highlights Socrates’ ways of fostering and encouraging self-examination and conscionable reflection. By focusing his work on Socrates’ use of protreptic, Marshall proposes a practical approach to reading Plato, illustrating how his writings can be used to enhance intrinsic motivation amongst students, and help them develop the thinking skills required for democratic and civic engagement. This engaging volume will be of interest to doctoral students, researchers, and scholars concerned with Plato’s dialogues, the philosophy of education, and ancient philosophy more broadly, as well as post-graduate students interested in moral and values education research.
Download or read book God and Cosmos written by David Baggett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'God and Cosmos' provides a four-fold moral argument for God's existence that is cumulative, abductive, and teleological.
Download or read book Recovering Reputation written by Andreas Avgousti and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-06-03 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andreas Avgousti considers the modern problem of reputation by turning to the dialogues of Plato, to show that reputation is not only an issue for political elites, but that it is a quality that helps the wider citizenry to cohere, bringing together citizens and non-citizens. Avgousti argues that reputation is worth thinking about because it is a power that circulates among the many, linked to and sustained by myths and rumors, and it is a power that the many exercise through the social mechanisms of praise and blame.
Download or read book The Crisis of Progress written by John C. Caiazza and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the concept of progress, its separate varieties, its current rejection, and how it may be reconsidered from a philosophical and scientific basis. John C. Caiazza's main emphasis is on how science is understood as it has a direct impact on social values as expressed by prominent philosophers. He argues that progress is at a standstill, which presents a crisis for Western civilization.Caiazza presents historical examples, both of scientific inquiry and social and cultural themes, to examine the subject of progress. Beginning with the Whig model and progressive political values exemplified by Bacon and Dewey, he also examines other variations, the Enlightenment, cosmopolitanism, and totalitarianism. Technology, argues Caiazza, also has a stultifying effect on Western culture and to understand the idea of progress, we must take a philosophic rather than a scientific point of view. Modern cosmology has inevitable humanistic and theological implications, and major contemporary philosophers reject social science in favour of ancient concepts of virtue and ethics.In the end, Caiazza writes that time is an agent, not a neutral plain on which scientific and historical events occur. We can expect technology to keep us in stasis or become aware of the possibility of transcendence. This book will be of interest for students of scientific history and philosophy.
Download or read book In Philebum written by Francis K. Peddle and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-10-09 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This commentary on Plato’s Philebus reconciles a close analysis of the text with a new interpretation of the dialogue. In Philebum focuses on the overarching metaphysical and cosmological coherency of the dialogue rather than its ethical import. This interpretation contrasts with the more common segmented philological analysis of this most evocative of Platonic dialogues. Plato’s late ontology and theory of an immanent Good portray a very different philosophical terrain than that of the transcendental visions of the Good found in other dialogues. The final chapter of In Philebum, entitled “The Life of the Speculative Philosopher,” extends this analysis of the dialogue to contemporary speculative philosophy. Based on Plato’s portrayal of a fourfold onto-cosmology and of the Good as measurability, proportionality, and intelligence, In Philebum makes connections between the doctrine of measured order-relations, triadicity, quadratic structure, and self-explanation that figure predominantly in contemporary speculative philosophy. It is intended for a broader audience of readers of Plato as well as for graduate students and commentators on Plato. In Philebum contains a Prolegomenon on the controversies surrounding the structural divisions of the Philebus as well as an up-to-date bibliography and general index.
Download or read book Ten Worlds written by Ash ElDifrawi and published by Health Communications, Inc.. This book was released on 2018-10-02 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh on the heels of his phenomenally-received book, The Undefeated Mind, Dr. Lickerman and co-author Dr. ElDifrawi offer a whole new perspective on understanding and achieving happiness. In this highly engaging and eminently practical book-told in the form of a Platonic dialogue recounting real-life patient experiences- Drs. Lickerman and ElDifrawi assert that the reason genuine, longlasting happiness is so difficult to achieve and maintain is that we're profoundly confused not only about how to go about it, but also about what happiness is. In identifying nine basic erroneous views we all have about what we need to be happy-views they term the core delusions-Lickerman and ElDifrawi show us that our happiness depends not on our external possessions or even on our experiences but rather on the beliefs we have that shape our most fundamental thinking. These beliefs, they argue, create ten internal life-conditions, or worlds, through which we continuously cycle and that determine how happy we're able to be. Drawing on the latest scientific research as well as Buddhist philosophy, Lickerman and ElDifrawi argue that once we learn to embrace a correct understanding of happiness, we can free ourselves from the suffering the core delusions cause us and enjoy the kind of happiness we all want, the kind found in the highest of the Ten Worlds, the world of Enlightenment.
Download or read book Ars Vitae written by Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the flood of self-help guides and our current therapeutic culture, feelings of alienation and spiritual longing continue to grip modern society. In this book, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn offers a fresh solution: a return to classic philosophy and the cultivation of an inner life. The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero wrote that philosophy is ars vitae, the art of living. Today, signs of stress and duress point to a full-fledged crisis for individuals and communities while current modes of making sense of our lives prove inadequate. Yet, in this time of alienation and spiritual longing, we can glimpse signs of a renewed interest in ancient approaches to the art of living. In this ambitious and timely book, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn engages both general readers and scholars on the topic of well-being. She examines the reappearance of ancient philosophical thought in contemporary American culture, probing whether new stirrings of Gnosticism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, and Platonism present a true alternative to our current therapeutic culture of self-help and consumerism, which elevates the self’s needs and desires yet fails to deliver on its promises of happiness and healing. Do the ancient philosophies represent a counter-tradition to today’s culture, auguring a new cultural vibrancy, or do they merely solidify a modern way of life that has little use for inwardness—the cultivation of an inner life—stemming from those older traditions? Tracing the contours of this cultural resurgence and exploring a range of sources, from scholarship to self-help manuals, films, and other artifacts of popular culture, this book sees the different schools as organically interrelated and asks whether, taken together, they can point us in important new directions. Ars Vitae sounds a clarion call to take back philosophy as part of our everyday lives. It proposes a way to do so, sifting through the ruins of long-forgotten and recent history alike for any shards helpful in piecing together the coherence of a moral framework that allows us ways to move forward toward the life we want and need.
Download or read book Liberation in the Face of Uncertainty written by Hubert J. M. Hermans and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-13 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, Dialogical Self Theory is innovatively presented as a guide to help elucidate some of the most pressing problems of our time as they emerge at the interface of self and society. As a bridging framework at the interface of the social sciences and philosophy, Dialogical Self Theory provides a broad view of problem areas that place us in a field of tension between liberation and social imprisonment. With climate change and the coronavirus pandemic serving as wake-up calls, the book focuses on the experience of uncertainty, the disenchantment of the world, the pursuit of happiness, and the cultural limitations of the Western self-ideal. Now more than ever we need to rethink the relationship between self, other, and the natural environment, and this book uses Dialogical Self Theory to explore actual and potential responses of the self to these urgent challenges.
Download or read book Art and the Brain written by Amy Ione and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her new book Art and the Brain: Plasticity, Embodiment and the Unclosed Circle, Amy Ione offers a profound assessment of our ever-evolving view of the biological brain as it pertains to embodied human experience.
