Download or read book The Poverty of Conceptual Truth written by R. Lanier Anderson and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The poverty of conceptual truth' is based on a simple idea. Kant's distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments underwrites a powerful argument against the metaphysical program of his Leibnizian-Wolffian predecessors-an argument from fundamental limits on its expressive power. In that tradition, metaphysics promised to reveal the deep rational structure of the world through a systematic philosophy consisting of strictly conceptual truths, which flow from a logically perspicuous relation of 'containment' among concepts. That is, all truths would be 'analytic, ' in Kant's sense. Kant's distinction shows to the contrary that far reaching and scientifically indispensable parts of our knowledge of the world (including mathematics, the foundations of natural science, all knowledge from experience, and the central principles of metaphysics itself) are essentially synthetic and could never be restated in analytic form. Thus, the metaphysics of Kant's predecessors is doomed, because knowledge crucial to any adequate theory of the world cannot even be expressed in the idiom to which it restricts itself (and which was the basis of its claim to provide a transparently rational account of things). Traditional metaphysics founders on the expressive poverty of conceptual truth. To establish these claims, R. Lanier Anderson shows how Kant's distinction can be given a clear basis within traditional logic, and traces Kant's long, difficult path to discovering it. Once analyticity is framed in clear logical terms, it is possible to reconstruct compelling arguments that elementary mathematics must be synthetic, and then to show how similar considerations about irreducible syntheticity animate Kant's famous arguments against traditional metaphysics in the Critique of Pure Reason.
Download or read book The Poverty of Conceptual Truth written by R. Lanier Anderson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-01-22 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Poverty of Conceptual Truth is based on a simple idea. Kant's distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments underwrites a powerful argument against the metaphysical program of his Leibnizian-Wolffian predecessors—an argument from fundamental limits on its expressive power. In that tradition, metaphysics promised to reveal the deep rational structure of the world through a systematic philosophy consisting of strictly conceptual truths, which flow from a logically perspicuous relation of 'containment' among concepts. That is, all truths would be 'analytic,' in Kant's sense. Kant's distinction shows to the contrary that far reaching and scientifically indispensable parts of our knowledge of the world (including mathematics, the foundations of natural science, all knowledge from experience, and the central principles of metaphysics itself) are essentially synthetic and could never be restated in analytic form. Thus, the metaphysics of Kant's predecessors is doomed, because knowledge crucial to any adequate theory of the world cannot even be expressed in the idiom to which it restricts itself (and which was the basis of its claim to provide a transparently rational account of things). Traditional metaphysics founders on the expressive poverty of conceptual truth. To establish these claims, R. Lanier Anderson shows how Kant's distinction can be given a clear basis within traditional logic, and traces Kant's long, difficult path to discovering it. Once analyticity is framed in clear logical terms, it is possible to reconstruct compelling arguments that elementary mathematics must be synthetic, and then to show how similar considerations about irreducible syntheticity animate Kant's famous arguments against traditional metaphysics in the Critique of Pure Reason.
Download or read book The Poverty of Conceptual Truth written by R. Lanier Anderson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-01-22 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Poverty of Conceptual Truth is based on a simple idea. Kant's distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments underwrites a powerful argument against the metaphysical program of his Leibnizian-Wolffian predecessors—an argument from fundamental limits on its expressive power. In that tradition, metaphysics promised to reveal the deep rational structure of the world through a systematic philosophy consisting of strictly conceptual truths, which flow from a logically perspicuous relation of 'containment' among concepts. That is, all truths would be 'analytic,' in Kant's sense. Kant's distinction shows to the contrary that far reaching and scientifically indispensable parts of our knowledge of the world (including mathematics, the foundations of natural science, all knowledge from experience, and the central principles of metaphysics itself) are essentially synthetic and could never be restated in analytic form. Thus, the metaphysics of Kant's predecessors is doomed, because knowledge crucial to any adequate theory of the world cannot even be expressed in the idiom to which it restricts itself (and which was the basis of its claim to provide a transparently rational account of things). Traditional metaphysics founders on the expressive poverty of conceptual truth. To establish these claims, R. Lanier Anderson shows how Kant's distinction can be given a clear basis within traditional logic, and traces Kant's long, difficult path to discovering it. Once analyticity is framed in clear logical terms, it is possible to reconstruct compelling arguments that elementary mathematics must be synthetic, and then to show how similar considerations about irreducible syntheticity animate Kant's famous arguments against traditional metaphysics in the Critique of Pure Reason.
Download or read book Kant on Reality Cause and Force written by Tal Glezer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kant's category of reality is an often overlooked element of his Critique of Pure Reason. Tal Glezer shows that it nevertheless belongs at the core of Kant's mature critical philosophy: it captures an issue that motivated his critical turn, shaped his theory of causation, and established the role of his philosophy of science. Glezer's study traces the roots of Kant's category of reality to early modern debates over the intelligibility of substantial forms, fueled by the tension between the idea of non-extended substances and that of extended objects. This tension influenced Kant's pre-critical work, and eventually inspired his radical break towards transcendental idealism. Glezer explores the importance of reality for Kant's conceptions of cause and force, and sheds new light on his philosophy of physical science, including gravity. His book will interest scholars of Kant and of early modern philosophy, as well as historians of scientific ideas.
Download or read book Anselm s Argument written by Brian Leftow and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Anselm of Canterbury gave the first modal "ontological" argument for God's existence. Yet, despite its distinct originality, philosophers have mostly avoided the question of what modal concepts the argument uses, and whether Anselm's metaphysics entitles him to use them. Here, Brian Leftow sets out Anselm's modal metaphysics. He argues that Anselm has an "absolute", "broadly logical", or "metaphysical" modal concept, and that his metaphysics provides acceptable truth makers for claims in this modality. He shows that his modal argument is committed (in effect) to the Brouwer system of modal logic, and defends the claim that Brouwer is part of the logic of "absolute" or "metaphysical" modality. He also defends Anselm's premise that God would exist with absolute necessity against all extant objections, providing new arguments in support of it and ultimately defending all but one premise of Anselm's best argument for God's existence"--
Download or read book Reconceiving Spinoza written by Samuel Newlands and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samuel Newlands presents a sweeping new interpretation of Spinoza's metaphysical system and the way in which his metaphysics shapes, and is shaped by, his moral program. Engaging with contemporary metaphysics and ethics, Newlands reveals just how exciting and vibrant Spinoza's philosophical outlook remains for philosophers today.
Download or read book Kant s Critique of Pure Reason and the Method of Metaphysics written by Gabriele Gava and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-05-25 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In two often neglected passages of the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant submits that the Critique is a 'treatise' or a 'doctrine of method'. These passages are puzzling because the Critique is only cursorily concerned with identifying adequate procedures of argument for philosophy. In this book, Gabriele Gava argues that these passages point out that the Critique is the doctrine of method of metaphysics. Doctrines of method have the task of showing that a given science is indeed a science because it possesses 'architectonic unity' – which happens when it realizes the 'idea' of a science. According to Gava's novel approach, the Critique establishes that metaphysics is capable of this unity, and his reading of the Critique from this perspective not only illuminates the central role of the Transcendental Doctrine of Method within it, but also clarifies the relationship between the different parts of the work.
Download or read book Reason in the World written by James Kreines and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book defends a new interpretation of Hegel's theoretical philosophy, according to which Hegel's project in his central Science of Logic has a single organizing focus, provided by taking metaphysics as fundamental to philosophy, rather than any epistemological problem about knowledge or intentionality. Hegel pursues more specifically the metaphysics of reason, concerned with grounds, reasons, or conditions in terms of which things can be explained-and ultimately with the possibility of complete reasons. There is no threat to such metaphysics in epistemological or skeptical worries. The real threat is Kant's Transcendental Dialectic case that metaphysics comes into conflict with itself. But Hegel, despite familiar worries, has a powerful case that Kant's own insights in the Dialectic can be turned to the purpose of constructive metaphysics. And we can understand in these terms the unified focus of the arguments at the conclusion of Hegel's Science of Logic. Hegel defends, first, his general claim that the reasons which explain things are always found in immanent concepts, universals or kinds. And he will argue from here to conclusions which are distinctive in being metaphysically ambitious yet surprisingly distant from any form of metaphysical foundationalism, whether scientistic, theological, or otherwise. Hegel's project, then, turns out neither Kantian nor Spinozist, but more distinctively his own. Finally, we can still learn a great deal from Hegel about ongoing philosophical debates concerning everything from metaphysics, to the philosophy of science, and all the way to the nature of philosophy itself.
Download or read book Poverty of Theory written by E. P. P. Thompson and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1978-01-01 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic collection of essays by E.P. Thompson, one of England’s most renowned socialist voices, remains a staple text in the history of Marxist theory. The bulk of the book is dedicated to Thompson’s famous polemic against Louis Althusser and what he considers the reductionism and authoritarianism of Althusserian structuralism. In lively and erudite prose, Thompson argues for a self-critical and unapologetically humanist Marxist tradition. Also included are three essays of considerable importance to the development of the New Left.
Download or read book Looking at concepts of truth and lies through fictional worlds Umberto Eco s novels Baudolino and The Name of the Rose written by Sabine Mercer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bachelor Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1.5, James Cook University, language: English, abstract: The question then is, must we silence the irrational voices inside and outside and make an effort to understand the complexity of our existence to save us from chaos? Umberto Eco continues the tradition of philosophical novels, a genre in which scientific concepts, logic and knowledge form an essential part of the story. This thesis focuses on two of his novels "Baudolino" and "The Name of the Rose". Not all knowledge-systems can be considered having equal value, but they all present competing frameworks. Whether we gain knowledge directly or indirectly, there are many different ways of knowing. It is part of the human condition to think that what feels to be true can exist independently of what we are told is true. What is of personal value we keep defending, even if we have to ignore facts or discredit contradictory arguments by labelling them as lies. No single theory can explain what we call ‘reality’, but we readily assume that reasoning and first-hand experiences are better guides than feeling. Still, the problem of self-deception looms large in appearances and judgements. His novels explore the interrelationship of belief, factual knowledge, differences between reality and perception, which can be subsumed under the categories of epistemology (the origin, nature, and limits of knowledge) and ontology (modes of experience, the categorical structure of reality, the nature or essence of individuals and objects). Both narratives are filled with examples that show the complexity of existence. When experience can be flawed and reasoning can lead to false conclusions, cautiousness and doubt should be applied. The medieval debate of ideas about the world and our place in it invites readers to reflect and to establish connections between the past and the present. The connection between Eco’s postmodern meta fictions "The Name of the Rose" and "Baudolino" is illustrated in the light of Eco's numerous theoretical works. Both novels incorporate metaphysical and philosophical issues in a framework of fictionalized medieval controversies that engage with the nature of truth, justifications for a variety of beliefs, and the conceptual making of reality. The historical struggle between nominalism and realism, between totality and detail, and between empiricism and dogmatism, makes for a philosophical tour de force.
Download or read book Philosophical Method a Very Short Introduction written by Timothy Williamson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-08-27 with total page 161 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, Williams 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 Very Short Introduction will cause you to totally rethink what philosophy is. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. Previously published in hardback as Doing Philosophy
Download or read book Kant s Reform of Metaphysics written by Karin de Boer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reinterprets key parts of the Critique of Pure Reason in view of Kant's sustained engagement with Wolffian metaphysics.
Download or read book Kant s Idea of a System of Nature written by Ludmila Ludmilova Guenova and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 758 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Philosophy and Child Poverty written by Nicolás Brando and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a broad and diverse reflection of the ways in which child poverty could be conceptualised, and the ways in which it is intertwined with childhood as a specific social condition. Furthermore, the responsibilities towards children and the possible mechanisms required for dealing with this condition will be analysed and clarified. This is the first volume on philosophy and child poverty. Despite the increasing number of publications on poverty, the particular phenomenon of poverty during childhood has not received much philosophical attention. This is surprising, given the severity and depth of child poverty around the globe. This volume brings together various philosophical approaches and how they understand and tackle child poverty. This is an important addition to the philosophical literature, which is also of wider interest to scholars working in the social sciences and with an interest in child poverty.
Download or read book Space and Personality written by Archibald Allan and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Poverty of Ethics written by Anat Matar and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the left should reclaim ethics and morality for itself The Poverty of Ethics stands the usual moral-political dichotomy on its head. It argues that moral principles do not in fact underlie or inform political decisions. It is, rather, the conceptual primacy of political discourse that rescues ethics from its poverty. Our ethical convictions receive their substance from historical narratives, political analyses, empirical facts, literary-educational models, political activity and personal experience. Yet morality, essentially, doesn’t leave room for relativity: not every ethos deserves to be titles ‘moral’. Hence the book argues further, it is the left ethos, as it has evolved over years, which forms the basis for ethics: morality is left-wing! Clarifying and justifying this seemingly odd statement is the main purpose of this essay. Appealing to philosophical ideas on the essence of language, on meaning, on understanding and persuasion, this book scrutinizes the system of concepts and attitudes informing our common view of the relationship between the moral and the political. It argues that the traditional conception of morality is far too narrow to form a basis for political thought and political action. Its carefully unfolded argument concludes that none of the current philosophical accounts of morality can be translated into terms of political will, much less into direct political action. Being too general and elastic, neither abstract moral principles, ethical-aesthetic sensibilities, nor the ethical demand emanating from an Other, can fulfill these tasks. Instead, the false primacy of the ethical over the political and the infinite flexibility of vacuous moral discourse are often mobilized to launder wrongs and delegitimize radical left politics. Gratification of the moral high ground becomes an implement of de-politicization, and thus a powerful political instrument in the hands of those seeking to shore up the existing order.
Download or read book The Ayn Rand Lexicon written by Ayn Rand and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prolific writer, bestselling novelist, and world-renowned philosopher, Ayn Rand defined a full system of thought--from epistemology to aesthetics. Her writing is so extensive and the range of issues she covers so enormous that those interested in finding her discussions of a given topic may have to search through many sources to locate the relevant passage. The Ayn Rand Lexicon brings together all the key ideas of her philosophy of Objectivism. Begun under Rand's supervision, this unique volume is an invaluable guide to her philosophy or reason, self-interest and laissez-faire capitalism--the philosophy so brilliantly dramatized in her novels The Fountainhead, We the Living, and Anthem.
