Download or read book The Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Alexander R. Pruss and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-03-20 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) says that all contingent facts must have explanation. In this 2006 volume, which was the first on the topic in the English language in nearly half a century, Alexander Pruss examines the substantive philosophical issues raised by the Principle Reason. Discussing various forms of the PSR and selected historical episodes, from Parmenides, Leibnez, and Hume, Pruss defends the claim that every true contingent proposition must have an explanation against major objections, including Hume's imaginability argument and Peter van Inwagen's argument that the PSR entails modal fatalism. Pruss also provides a number of positive arguments for the PSR, based on considerations as different as the metaphysics of existence, counterfactuals and modality, negative explanations, and the everyday applicability of the PSR. Moreover, Pruss shows how the PSR would advance the discussion in a number of disparate fields, including meta-ethics and the philosophy of mathematics.
Download or read book Kant Hume and the Interruption of Dogmatic Slumber written by Abraham Anderson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-24 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kant once famously declared in the Prolegomena that "it was the objection of David Hume that first, many years ago, interrupted my dogmatic slumber." Abraham Anderson here offers an interpretation of this utterance, arguing that Hume roused Kant not (as has often been thought) by challenging the principle that "every event has a cause" which governs experience, but rather by attacking the principle of sufficient reason, the basis of both rationalist metaphysics and the cosmological proof of the existence of God. This suggestion, Anderson proposes, allows us to reconcile Kant's declaration with his later assertion that it was the Antinomy of pure reason - the clash of opposing theses - that first woke him from dogmatic slumber. For the Antinomy suspends the dogmatic principle of sufficient reason; in doing so, Anderson proposes, it is extending Hume's attack on that principle. This reading of Kant also explains why Kant speaks of "the objection of David Hume" after mentioning Hume's attack on metaphysics. The "objection" that Kant has in mind, Anderson argues, is a challenge to metaphysics, rather than to the foundations of empirical knowledge. Consequently, Anderson's analysis issues a new view of Hume himself-as primarily interested, not in the foundations of experience, but in the problem of metaphysics and theology. It thereby positions Kant and Hume as champions of the Enlightenment in its struggle with superstition. Shedding new light on the connection between two of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy, this volume will appeal not only to scholars of Kant, Hume, and early modern philosophy, but to philosophers and students interested in the history of philosophy and metaphysics generally.
Download or read book Sufficient Reason written by Daniel W. Bromley and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the standard analysis of economic institutions--which include social conventions, the working rules of an economy, and entitlement regimes (property relations)--economists invoke the same theories they use when analyzing individual behavior. In this profoundly innovative book, Daniel Bromley challenges these theories, arguing instead for "volitional pragmatism" as a plausible way of thinking about the evolution of economic institutions. Economies are always in the process of becoming. Here is a theory of how they become. Bromley argues that standard economic accounts see institutions as mere constraints on otherwise autonomous individual action. Some approaches to institutional economics--particularly the "new" institutional economics--suggest that economic institutions emerge spontaneously from the voluntary interaction of economic agents as they go about pursuing their best advantage. He suggests that this approach misses the central fact that economic institutions are the explicit and intended result of authoritative agents--legislators, judges, administrative officers, heads of states, village leaders--who volitionally decide upon working rules and entitlement regimes whose very purpose is to induce behaviors (and hence plausible outcomes) that constitute the sufficient reasons for the institutional arrangements they create. Bromley's approach avoids the prescriptive consequentialism of contemporary economics and asks, instead, that we see these emergent and evolving institutions as the reasons for the individual and aggregate behavior their very adoption anticipates. These hoped-for outcomes comprise sufficient reasons for new laws, judicial decrees, and administrative rulings, which then become instrumental to the realization of desired individual behaviors and thus aggregate outcomes.
Download or read book The History of the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Wilbur Marshall Urban and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book On Schopenhauer s Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by F. C. White and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1992 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a philosophical commentary on Schopenhauer's "Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason," dealing with each of Schopenhauer's principal topics in turn. It also provides the reader with a general survey of Schopenhauer's later philosophical views and puts them into an historical context
Download or read book A History of the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Wilbur Marshall Urban and published by . This book was released on 1897 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Arthur Schopenhauer and published by Open Court Publishing. This book was released on 1974 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Schopenhauer's analyses of causation and related concepts . . . rival and probably surpass in their depth and brilliance the more celebrated discussions of David Hume. Where Hume grossly oversimplified these problems and left them riddled with paradoxes, Schopenhauer disentangled them and shed light on what had seemed hopelessly dark." --Richard Taylor, University of Rochester
Download or read book On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Arthur Schopenhauer and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spinoza written by Michael Della Rocca and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-06-30 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned for his metaphysics, Spinoza made significant contributions to understanding the human mind, the emotions, moral philosophy, and political philosophy. Beginning with an overview of Spinoza's life, Michael Della Rocca carefully unpacks and explains Spinoza's philosophy: his metaphysics of substance and argument at the center of his whole system that God is the sole independent substance; his account of the human mind and its relation to the body; his theory that human beings tend towards self-preservation and his most famous work, the Ethics, including the problem of free will; and his writings on the state, religion and scripture. Della Rocca concludes with a chapter on Spinoza's legacy and how modern philosophers, Hume, Hegel, and Nietzsche, responded to Spinoza's challenge. Ideal for those coming to Spinoza for the first time as well as those already acquainted with his thought, Spinoza is essential reading for anyone studying philosophy.
Download or read book On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason On the Will in Nature written by Arthur Schopenhauer and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-10-25 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arthur Schopenhauer's 'On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason & On the Will in Nature' is a profound philosophical work that delves into the nature of existence, causality, and the human will. Schopenhauer explores the principle of sufficient reason in four distinct aspects, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of how reason operates in the world. His literary style is characterized by intricate reasoning and meticulous analysis, making this book a challenging yet rewarding read for those interested in metaphysics and epistemology. Set within the Romantic era, Schopenhauer's work challenges the dominant philosophical trends of his time, offering a unique perspective on the nature of reality. Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher influenced by Kant and Eastern philosophies, was driven to write 'On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason & On the Will in Nature' by his deep-seated desire to uncover the underlying principles governing existence. His pessimistic worldview and emphasis on the power of the will set him apart from his contemporaries, making his philosophical work both provocative and enlightening. I highly recommend 'On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason & On the Will in Nature' to readers who are seeking a challenging and thought-provoking exploration of metaphysics and the human experience. Schopenhauer's insights are sure to stimulate intellectual inquiry and inspire contemplation on the fundamental nature of reality.
Download or read book The Principle of Reason written by Martin Heidegger and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-22 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Principle of Reason, the text of an important and influential lecture course that Martin Heidegger gave in 1955–56, takes as its focal point Leibniz's principle: nothing is without reason. Heidegger shows here that the principle of reason is in fact a principle of being. Much of his discussion is aimed at bringing his readers to the "leap of thinking," which enables them to grasp the principle of reason as a principle of being. This text presents Heidegger's most extensive reflection on the notion of history and its essence, the Geschick of being, which is considered on of the most important developments in Heidegger's later thought. One of Heidegger's most artfully composed texts, it also contains important discussions of language, translation, reason, objectivity, and technology as well as remarkable readings of Leibniz, Kant, Aristotle, and Goethe, among others.
Download or read book A Treatise on the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Penelope Frederica Fitzgerald and published by . This book was released on 1887 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Scott Sullivan and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-28 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Common sense tells us all that things just do not pop into existence out of nothing. It takes work and effort to make things happen. Buildings are made by builders, diseases are the result of germs, headaches come from sinus pressure, plane crashes occur when there is some major malfunction, bumps occur in the middle of the night because of the wind blowing a shutter, an alley cat knocking over a trash can, or a burglar attempting a break-in.In other words, all of these assumptions about the world proceed on a principle. But what exactly is this principle? In our unreflective, intuitional, everyday speech, it goes something like "Things do not just happen 'out of the blue,' something has to make them happen!" In ancient and medieval times, the principle about which we are concerned was sometimes implicit, and other times explicit, albeit with various formulations, such as; "Nothing gives what it does not have," "There cannot be more in the effect than what was contained in the cause," "Whatever begins to exist must have a cause," or more frequently, ex nihilo nihil fit - "Out of nothing, nothing comes."In this work, I will propose that the principle of sufficient reason is the grand formulation of these intuitions and scholastic dictums, and thus is the principle that lies behind all of our casual inferences. Leibniz explicitly coined this term, yet he claimed not to discover any new principle, rather only to encapsulate all the implicit formulations used in the history of philosophy. The principle of sufficient reason is commonly formulated as such: "Every being has the sufficient reason for its existence (i.e., the adequate ground or basis in existence) either in itself or in another." Stated negatively, "Out of nothing, nothing comes" (being neither comes from nor can be determined by sheer nothing). The principle of sufficient reason, then, is simply an attempt to conveniently summarize, in one basic formula, the common intuitions of everyday life and what other great philosophers have either presupposed or loosely articulated in these more specialized formulas of the "principle of causality."Leibniz once said that without the principle of sufficient reason, very little in philosophy and science could be demonstrated. In a similar vein, the contemporary Thomistic philosopher, Norris Clarke, has called the principle of sufficient reason the dynamic principle of metaphysics, since it is in virtue of this very principle that enables the mind to pass from one being to another in order to make sense out of it: "All advance in thought to infer the existence of some new being from what we already know depends upon this principle."Using primarily, but not exclusively, the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, the purpose of this book is to argue that there are good reasons for thinking that the principle of sufficient reason is true.
Download or read book On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and on the Will in Nature Two Essays written by Arthur Schopenhauer and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and on the Will in Nature: Two Essays by Arthur Schopenhauer
Download or read book Schopenhauer On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and Other Writings written by Arthur Schopenhauer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 622 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of translations unites three shorter works by Arthur Schopenhauer that expand on themes from his book The World as Will and Representation. In On the Fourfold Root he takes the principle of sufficient reason, which states that nothing is without a reason why it is, and shows how it covers different forms of explanation or ground that previous philosophers have tended to confuse. Schopenhauer regarded this study, which he first wrote as his doctoral dissertation, as an essential preliminary to The World as Will. On Will in Nature examines contemporary scientific findings in search of corroboration of his thesis that processes in nature are all a species of striving towards ends; and On Vision and Colours defends an anti-Newtonian account of colour perception influenced by Goethe's famous colour theory. This is the first English edition to provide extensive editorial notes on the different published versions of these works.
Download or read book On the Fourfold Foundation of the Principle of Sufficient Reason written by Arthur Schopenhauer and published by Newcomb Livraria Press. This book was released on with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new 2023 translation of Schopenhauer's 1813 Über die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde, his dissertation which earned him his Ph.D. This is volume I in the Complete works of Arthur Schopenhauer by Newcomb Livraria Press. As Marx’s dissertation on an Epicurean version of Hegelianism defined his entire philosophic-economic project, so Schopenhauer’s dissertation on the Principle of Sufficient Reason defines his entire career. This work was his dissertation for his PhD from the University of Jena (also Hegel's Alma motta). Leibniz's Enlightenment Principle of Sufficient Reason, developed from Aristotelianism’s hybridization with medieval Catholicism immediately following the Great Schism, is the basis of Schopenhauer’s criticisms of Kant and the foundation of his later works. This is a distinct variation which builds out Leibnitz's Monadology in four directions- Becoming, Knowing, Being and Willing.
Download or read book Spinoza on Human Freedom written by Matthew J. Kisner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-10 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza was one of the most influential figures of the Enlightenment, but his often obscure metaphysics makes it difficult to understand the ultimate message of his philosophy. Although he regarded freedom as the fundamental goal of his ethics and politics, his theory of freedom has not received sustained, comprehensive treatment. Spinoza holds that we attain freedom by governing ourselves according to practical principles, which express many of our deepest moral commitments. Matthew J. Kisner focuses on this theory and presents an alternative picture of the ethical project driving Spinoza's philosophical system. His study of the neglected practical philosophy provides an accessible and concrete picture of what it means to live as Spinoza's ethics envisioned.
