Download or read book Scepticism and Animal Faith written by George Santayana and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 1955-01-01 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work, Santayana analyzes the nature of the knowing process and demonstrates by means of clear, powerful arguments how we know and what validates our knowledge. The central concept of his philosophy is found in a careful discrimination between the awareness of objects independent of our perception and the awareness of essences attributed to objects by our mind, or between what Santayana calls the realm of existents and the realm of subsistents. Since we can never be certain that these attributes actually inhere in a substratum of existents, skepticism is established as a form of belief, but animal faith is shown to be a necessary quality of the human mind. Without this faith there could be no rational approach to the necessary problem of understanding and surviving in this world. Santayana derives this practical philosophy from a wide and fascinating variety of sources. He considers critically the positions of such philosophers as Descartes, Euclid, Hume, Kant, Parmenides, Plato, Pythagoras, Schopenhauer, and the Buddhist school as well as the assumptions made by the ordinary man in everyday situations. Such matters as the nature of belief, the rejection of classical idealism, the nature of intuition and memory, symbols and myth, mathematical reality, literary psychology, the discovery of essence, sublimation of animal faith, the implied being of truth, and many others are given detailed analyses in individual chapters.
Download or read book Renaissance Scepticisms written by Gianni Paganini and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-11-14 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even if specific pieces of research (on the sources or on individual authors, such as Pico, Agrippa, Erasmus, Montaigne, Sanches etc.) have given and are still producing significant results on Renaissance scepticism, an overall synthesis comprising the entire period has not been achieved yet. No predetermined idea of that complex historical subject that is Renaissance scepticism underlies this book, and we want to sacrifice the complexity of movements, personalities, tendencies and interpretations to any sort of a priori unity of theme even less. We acknowledge unhesitatingly that we had always thought of “scepticisms” in the plural, and believe that the different contexts (philosophical, religious, cultural) in which these forms grew up must also be taken into account. Furthermore, given the transversal nature and provocative character of the sceptical challenge, this book contains essays also on philosophers who, without being sceptics and sometimes engaged in fighting scepticism, nevertheless took up its challenge. The main authors considered in this book are: Vives, Castellio, Agrippa, Pedro de Valencia, Pico, Sanchez, Montaigne, Charron, Bruno, Bacon, and Campanella. The various essays in the book show the relevance of the philosophical thought of authors little known by the general public and put in new perspective important aspects of the thought of some of the great thinkers of the Renaissance.
Download or read book Scepticisms written by Conrad Aiken and published by . This book was released on 1919 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Scepticism in the Enlightenment written by R.H. Popkin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with Richard Popkin's essay of 1963, `Scepticism in the Enlightenment', a new investigation into philosophical scepticism of the period was launched. The late Giorgio Tonelli and the late Ezequiel de Olaso examined in great detail the kinds of scepticism developed during the Enlightenment, and the kind of answer to scepticism that was developed by Leibniz. Their original researches and interpretations are of great value and importance. As a result of their work Popkin modified his original claims, as shown in the last two articles in this volume. The book contains an introduction by Popkin and 10 essays, two of which have never been published before. This collection should be of interest to students and scholars of 18th century thought in England, France and Germany.
Download or read book Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy written by M. F. Burnyeat and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-14 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first of two volumes collecting the published work of one of the greatest living ancient philosophers, M.F. Burnyeat.
Download or read book Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Scepticism written by Sextus Empiricus and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-07-20 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outlines of Scepticism, by the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus, is a work of major importance for the history of Greek philosophy. It is the fullest extant account of ancient scepticism, and it is also one of our most copious sources of information about the other Hellenistic philosophies. Its first part contains an elaborate exposition of the Pyrrhonian variety of scepticism; its second and third parts are critical and destructive, arguing against 'dogmatism' in logic, epistemology, science and ethics - an approach that revolutionized the study of philosophy when Sextus' works were rediscovered and published in the sixteenth century. This volume presents the accurate and readable translation which was first published in 1994, together with a substantial new historical and philosophical introduction by Jonathan Barnes.
Download or read book The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism written by Barry Stroud and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1984-07-05 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He author argues that the sceptical thesis is motivated by a persistent philosophical problem that calls the very possibility of knowledge about the external world into question, and that the sceptical thesis is the only acceptable answer to this problem as traditionally posed.
Download or read book The Original Sceptics written by Myles Burnyeat and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of five essays debating the nature and scope of ancient scepticism, and providing an introduction to the thought of the original sceptics. The book seeks to shed new light on how their thought relates to sceptical arguments in modern philosophy.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment written by Alexander Broadie and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-10 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment offers a philosophical perspective on an eighteenth-century movement that has been profoundly influential on western culture. A distinguished team of contributors examines the writings of David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, Colin Maclaurin and other Scottish thinkers, in fields including philosophy, natural theology, economics, anthropology, natural science and law. In addition, the contributors relate the Scottish Enlightenment to its historical context and assess its impact and legacy in Europe, America and beyond. The result is a comprehensive and accessible volume that illuminates the richness, the intellectual variety and the underlying unity of this important movement. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers in philosophy, theology, literature and the history of ideas.
Download or read book The Book of English Magic written by Philip Carr-Gomm and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2010-10-14 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to England’s rich history of magical lore and practice “for readers of works like Harry Potter who have grown up a bit into wanting to know more” (The Hermetic Library). Through experiments to try and places to visit, as well as a historical exploration of magic and interviews with leading magicians, The Book of English Magic will introduce you to the extraordinary world that lies beneath the surface. Magic runs through the veins of English history, part of daily life from the earliest Arthurian legends to Aleister Crowley to the novels of Tolkien and Philip Pullman, and from the Druids to Freemasonry and beyond. Richly illustrated and deeply knowledgeable, this book is an invaluable source for anyone curious about magic and wizardry, or for sophisticated practitioners seeking to expand their knowledge. “Playful and serious, respectful and amused . . . this will remain the standard work for years to come.” —The Sunday Telegraph “A magical mystery tour.” —The Times “Fabulous.” —Daily Express “Lucid and wonderfully easy to read . . . While it is indeed a perfect book for the ‘intelligent novice’ it’s far more than that—it’s a serious, in-depth survey of a massive topic.” —WitchVox “An accessible and immensely readable book . . . A fascinating insight into a hidden world.” —Booksquawk
Download or read book Certainty written by Peter David Klein and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible to scholars, students, researchers, and general readers. Rich with historical and cultural value, these works are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The books offered through Minnesota Archive Editions are produced in limited quantities according to customer demand and are available through select distribution partners.
Download or read book Ignorance written by Peter Unger and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1978-01-04 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this controversial volume (originally published in 1975) Peter Unger suggests that, not only can nothing ever be known, but no one can ever have a reason at all for anything. A consequence of this is that we cannot have any realistic emotional ties: it can never be conclusively said that someone is happy or sad about anything. Finally he argues that no one can ever say, let alone believe, that anything is the case. In order to get beyond this apparent bind - and this condition of ignorance - Unger proposes a radical departure from the linguistic and epistemological systems we have become accustomed to. Epistemologists, as well as philosophers of mind and language will undoubtedly find in this study of the limitations of language an invaluable philosophical perspective.
Download or read book Scepticism in the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment Lumi res Aufkl rung written by Sébastien Charles and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Age of Enlightenment has often been portrayed as a dogmatic period on account of the veritable worship of reason and progress that characterized Eighteenth Century thinkers. Even today the philosophes are considered to have been completely dominated in their thinking by an optimism that leads to dogmatism and ultimately rationalism. However, on closer inspection, such a conception seems untenable, not only after careful study of the impact of scepticism on numerous intellectual domains in the period, but also as a result of a better understanding of the character of the Enlightenment. As Giorgio Tonelli has rightly observed: “the Enlightenment was indeed the Age of Reason but one of the main tasks assigned to reason in that age was to set its own boundaries.” Thus, given the growing number of works devoted to the scepticism of Enlightenment thinkers, historians of philosophy have become increasingly aware of the role played by scepticism in the Eighteenth Century, even in those places once thought to be most given to dogmatism, especially Germany. Nevertheless, the deficiencies of current studies of Enlightenment scepticism are undeniable. In taking up this question in particular, the present volume, which is entirely devoted to the scepticism of the Enlightenment in both its historical and geographical dimensions, seeks to provide readers with a revaluation of the alleged decline of scepticism. At the same time it attempts to resituate the Pyrrhonian heritage within its larger context and to recapture the fundamental issues at stake. The aim is to construct an alternative conception of Enlightenment philosophy, by means of philosophical modernity itself, whose initial stages can be found herein.
Download or read book Wittgenstein and Scepticism written by Denis McManus and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-09-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wittgenstein is arguably the greatest philosopher of the last hundred years and scepticism is one of the central problems that modern philosophy faces. This collection is the first to be devoted to an examination of how that great philosopher's work bears on this fundamental philosophical problem. Wittgenstein's reaction to scepticism is complex, articulating both a sense that sceptical problems are ultimately unreal and a sense that scepticism teaches us something about the fundamental character of the human predicament. The essays, specially written for this collection by distinguished philosophers and commentators on Wittgenstein, explore that reaction, addressing, in particular, scepticism about the existence of the external world and of other minds. In doing so, it explores issues not only in theory of knowledge but also in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, language, perception and literature, as well as raising questions about the nature of philosophy itself. Several of the papers address the work of Stanley Cavell, perhaps the most influential commentator on the work of Wittgenstein, and Cavell replies in the final pieces to four of those papers. This collection is essential reading for students and scholars of Wittgenstein and anyone interested in the debate surrounding scepticism.
Download or read book Hume s Scepticism written by Fosl Peter S. Fosl and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-22 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making a sharp break with dominant contemporary readings of David Hume's scepticism Peter S. Fosl offers an original and radical interpretation of Hume as a thoroughgoing sceptic on epistemological, metaphysical and doxastic grounds. He does this by first situating Hume's thought historically in the sceptical tradition and goes on to interpret the conceptual apparatus of his work - including the Treatise, Enquiries, Essays, History, Dialogues and letters.
Download or read book A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy written by Graham Oppy and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-05-06 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PROSE 2020 Single Volume Reference Finalist! Philosophers throughout history have debated the existence of gods, but it is only in recent years that the absence of such a belief has become a significant topic of philosophical analysis, in particular for philosophers of religion. Although it is difficult to trace the historical contours of atheism as the lack of belief in a higher power, the reasoned, reflective, and thoughtful rejection of theism has become commonplace in many modern intellectual circles, including academic philosophy where disciplinary data indicates that a large majority of philosophers self-identify as atheists. As the first book of its kind to bring together a collection of writing on the philosophical aspects of atheism both historical and contemporary, the Companion to Atheism and Philosophy stages an explicit, constructive, and comprehensive conversation between philosophy and atheism to examine the ways in which atheist thought intersects with ideas and positions from a variety of philosophical and theological sub-disciplines. The Companion begins by addressing the foundational questions and lingering controversies which underpin philosophical thought about atheism, exploring the implications of major developments in the history of philosophy for the modern atheistic worldview. Divided into eight distinct sections, essays consider a range of thinkers who were widely believed to have been atheists—including David Hume, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton—and survey different kinds of objections to theism and atheism, including logical, evidential, normative, and prudential. Later chapters trace the relationship between atheism and metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy oriented around topics such as pragmatism, postmodernism, freedom, education, violence, and happiness. Deftly curated and thoughtfully composed, A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy is the most ambitious and authoritative account of philosophical thinking on atheism available, and is a first-rate resource for academics, professionals, and students of philosophy, religious studies, and theology.
Download or read book Holy Ignorance written by Roy Olivier and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-16 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Olivier Roy, world-renowned authority on Islam and politics, finds in the modern disconnection between faith communities and socio-cultural identities a fertile space for fundamentalism to grow. Instead of freeing the world from religion, secularization has encouraged a kind of holy ignorance to take root, an anti-intellectualism that promises immediate, emotional access to the sacred and positions itself in direct opposition to contemporary pagan culture. The secularization of society was supposed to free people from religion, yet individuals are converting en masse to fundamentalist faiths, such as Protestant evangelicalism, Islamic Salafism, and Haredi Judaism. These religions either reconnect adherents to their culture through casual referents, like halal fast food, or maintain their momentum through purification rituals, such as speaking in tongues, a practice that allows believers to utter a language that is entirely their own. Instead of a return to traditional religious worship, we are now witnessing the individualisation of faith and the disassociation of faith communities from ethnic and national identities. Roy explores the options now available to powers that hope to integrate or control these groups; and whether marginalisation or homogenisation will further divide believers from their culture.
