Download or read book Wittgenstein s Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments written by Martin Cohen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wittgenstein’s Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments invites readers to participate actively in discovering the surprisingly powerful and fruitful tradition of "thought experiments." Gives a lively presentation of an "A to Z" of 26 fascinating and influential thought experiments from philosophy and science Presents vivid and often humorous discussion of the experiments, including strengths and weaknesses, historical context, and contemporary uses Provides a "how to" section for engaging in thought experiments Includes illustrations, mini-biographies, and suggestions for further reading.
Download or read book Thought Experiments in Methodological and Historical Contexts written by Katerina Ierodiakonou and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-06-09 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By analysing thought experiments from various periods in the history of philosophy and science, the essays in this volume seek to clarify how thought experiments work, what their limits are, and what their conceptualisation could be.
Download or read book Thinking on Screen written by Thomas E. Wartenberg and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-10-31 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking on Screen: Film as Philosophy is an accessible and thought-provoking examination of the way films raise and explore complex philosophical ideas. Written in a clear and engaging style, Thomas Wartenberg examines films’ ability to discuss, and even criticize ideas that have intrigued and puzzled philosophers over the centuries such as the nature of personhood, the basis of morality, and epistemological skepticism. Beginning with a demonstration of how specific forms of philosophical discourse are presented cinematically, Wartenberg moves on to offer a systematic account of the ways in which specific films undertake the task of philosophy. Focusing on the films The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Modern Times, The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Third Man, The Flicker, and Empire, Wartenberg shows how these films express meaningful and pertinent philosophical ideas. This book is essential reading for students of philosophy with an interest in film, aesthetics, and film theory. It will also be of interest to film enthusiasts intrigued by the philosophical implications of film.
Download or read book Thought X written by Robin Ince and published by Comma Press. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring leading scientists acting as consultants on the stories, and writing scientific afterwords, bringing the theory featured in the stories to life, including Prof. Sarah Bridle (Jodrell Bank), Prof. Jonathan Wolff and Prof. Frank Jackson (the inventor of the 'Mary's Room' thought experiment). Science is always telling stories. Whether in the creation myths of evolution or the Big Bang, or in the eureka moments of science history, narrative – just as much as metaphor – is a key tool in the scientist’s surprisingly literary toolkit. Perhaps the most interesting use of story is the thought experiment, the intuition pump, that draws on the most instinctive parts of the imagination to crack otherwise perplexing problems. From Newton's Bucket, to Maxwell’s Demon, from Einstein's Lift to Schrödinger’s Cat – all are examples of 'fiction' being used at the highest level, not just to explain, but to deduce, to prove. In this unique anthology, authors have collaborated with leading scientists, to bounce literary, human narratives against purely theoretical ones, alloying together real stories with abstract ones, to produce truly extraordinary results. Full list of thought experiments: The Twin Paradox, The Grandfather Paradox, Maxwell's Demon, Laplace's Demon, Mary's Room, The Chinese Room, Schrödinger's Cat, Galileo's Boat, The Infinite Monkey Typing Pool, Einstein in a LIft, Einstein Chasing a Beam of Light, Newton's Bucket, Olber's Paradox.
Download or read book 101 Philosophy Problems written by Martin Cohen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin Cohen's 101 Philosophy Problems has introduced thousands of readers to philosophy in an entertaining but informative and stimulating way. It is ideal for anyone coming to philosophy for the first time.
Download or read book Philosophical Imagination written by Boris Vezjak and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-06-07 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thought experiments by ancient philosophers are often open to debate: in what sense did their reasoning really concern thought experimentation? For instance, in Plato’s Republic, Glaucon uses the myth of Gyges to demonstrate why people who practice justice do so unwillingly. A challenge, posed to Socrates and provided through some sort of thought experiment by imagining the effects of using the ring of invisibility, was intended to answer the question of human nature and our basis for the inclination towards justice or injustice. This collection expands the current, but rare, topic of whether it is possible to articulate a discussion about thought experiments and their arguments from the historical perspective of philosophy and science. It may sometimes seem that, in a loose sense, any philosophical reflection can already be interpreted as some form of thought experiment. Although the functions of it are very diverse and complex, and often closely linked to other cognitive tools, such as visualization, imagination or idealization, the contributions in this book provide new insights into how the concept of a thought experiment coincides with more modern perceptions. The purpose of the book is to show how philosophers, already in antiquity, began to use thought experiments and argumentation to convey theories in an accessible manner and how philosophical hypotheses, often being subjective and impossible to prove through empirical evidence, helped to promote scientific knowledge and discoveries. Different authors develop several lines of argumentation, claiming that philosophical thinking can be understood by comparing it to scientific experimenting, or vice versa: if empirical evidence is usually necessary for science, thought experiments may be used to develop a hypothesis or to prepare for experimentation. The analysis of historical examples of thought experiments might also contribute to a better understanding of philosophical endeavour in antiquity as a whole.
Download or read book Rethinking Thinking written by Martin Cohen and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2022-04-04 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do generals - and business strategists - outwit their opponents? Where do designers and artists get their inspiration from? How can all of us 'pump up the originality' and steer our thinking off the standard, well-worn tracks? Everyone, as the French philosopher René Descartes pointed out long ago, thinks. That’s the easy bit. The harder part, and what this book is really about, is how to make your thinking original and effective. And here the problem is that too often we don’t really engage the gears of our brain, don’t really look at issues in an original or active way, we just respond. Like computers, inputs are processed according to established rules and outputs are thus largely predetermined. Yet that’s not what makes us human and that’s not where the big prizes in life are to be found. In the third millennium, we need to think a bit more - not less! And so the focus in this book is on practical suggestions about ways to think better... on thinking strategies that each have their own style, applications and benefits.
Download or read book Jerusalem and Other Holy Places as Foci of Multireligious and Ideological Confrontation written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jerusalem and Other Holy Places as Foci of Multireligious and Ideological Confrontation demonstrates the variety in the study of holy places, as well as the flexibility of geographic and historical aspects of holiness.
Download or read book Philosophy For Dummies written by Martin Cohen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confused by metaphysics? In a muddle with aesthetics? Intimidated by Kant? Then look no further! Philosophy For Dummies, UK Edition is a complete crash-course in philosophical thought, covering key philosophers, philosophical history and theory and the big questions that affect us today. Tying in with standard UK curricula and including core topics such as logic, ethics and political philosophy, this impartial, expert guide cuts through the jargon to give you the facts. Whether you're a philosophy student or a complete beginner, Philosophy For Dummies, UK Edition will get you thinking and talking about philosophy in no time, and with maximum confidence.
Download or read book The Laboratory of the Mind written by James Robert Brown and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-04-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newton's bucket, Einstein's elevator, Schrödinger's cat – these are some of the best-known examples of thought experiments in the natural sciences. But what function do these experiments perform? Are they really experiments at all? Can they help us gain a greater understanding of the natural world? How is it possible that we can learn new things just by thinking? In this revised and updated new edition of his classic text The Laboratory of the Mind, James Robert Brown continues to defend apriorism in the physical world. This edition features two new chapters, one on “counter thought experiments” and another on the development of inertial motion. With plenty of illustrations and updated coverage of the debate between Platonic rationalism and classic empiricism, this is a lively and engaging contribution to the field of philosophy of science.
Download or read book Model Based Reasoning in Science and Technology written by Lorenzo Magnani and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-08-30 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Systematically presented to enhance the feasibility of fuzzy models, this book introduces the novel concept of a fuzzy network whose nodes are rule bases and their interconnections are interactions between rule bases in the form of outputs fed as inputs.
Download or read book Magnificent Principia written by Colin Pask and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg has written that "all that has happened since 1687 is a gloss on the Principia." Now you too can appreciate the significance of this stellar work, regarded by many as the greatest scientific contribution of all time. Despite its dazzling reputation, Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or simply the Principia, remains a mystery for many people. Few of even the most intellectually curious readers, including professional scientists and mathematicians, have actually looked in the Principia or appreciate its contents. Mathematician Pask seeks to remedy this deficit in this accessible guided tour through Newton's masterpiece. Using the final edition of the Principia, Pask clearly demonstrates how it sets out Newton's (and now our) approach to science; how the framework of classical mechanics is established; how terrestrial phenomena like the tides and projectile motion are explained; and how we can understand the dynamics of the solar system and the paths of comets. He also includes scene-setting chapters about Newton himself and scientific developments in his time, as well as chapters about the reception and influence of the Principia up to the present day.
Download or read book A Companion to Applied Philosophy written by Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applied philosophy has been a growing area of research for the last 40 years. Until now, however, almost all of this research has been centered around the field of ethics. A Companion to Applied Philosophy breaks new ground, demonstrating that all areasof philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind, can be applied, and are relevant to questions of everyday life. This perennial topic in philosophy provides an overview of these various applied philosophy developments, highlighting similarities and differences between various areas of applied philosophy, and examining the very nature of this topic. It is an area to which many of the towering figures in the history of philosophy have contributed, and this timely Companion demonstrates how various historical contributions are actually contributions within applied philosophy, even if they are not traditionally seen as such. The Companion contains 42 essays covering major areas of philosophy; the articles themselves are all original contributions to the literature and represent the state of the art on this topic, as well as offering a map to the current debates.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Time written by H. James Birx and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2009-01-07 with total page 2633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With a strong interdisciplinary approach to a subject that does not lend itself easily to the reference format, this work may not seem to support directly academic programs beyond general research, but it is a more thorough and up-to-date treatment than Taylor and Francis′s 1994 Encyclopedia of Time. Highly recommended." —Library Journal STARRED Review Surveying the major facts, concepts, theories, and speculations that infuse our present comprehension of time, the Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture explores the contributions of scientists, philosophers, theologians, and creative artists from ancient times to the present. By drawing together into one collection ideas from scholars around the globe and in a wide range of disciplines, this Encyclopedia will provide readers with a greater understanding of and appreciation for the elusive phenomenon experienced as time. Features Surveys historical thought about time, including those ideas that emerged in ancient Greece, early Christianity, the Italian Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, and other periods Covers the original and lasting insights of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin, physicist Albert Einstein, philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Discusses the significance of time in the writings of Isaac Asimov, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fyodor M. Dostoevsky, Francesco Petrarch, H. G. Wells, and numerous other authors Contains the contributions of naturalists and religionists, including astronomers, cosmologists, physicists, chemists, geologists, paleontologists, anthropologists, psychologists, philosophers, and theologians Includes artists′ portrayals of the fluidity of time, including painter Salvador Dali′s The Persistence of Memory and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, and writers Gustave Flaubert′s The Temptation of Saint Anthony and Henryk Sienkiewicz′s Quo Vadis Provides a truly interdisciplinary approach, with discussions of Aztec, Buddhist, Christian, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Hindu, Islamic, Navajo, and many other cultures′ conceptions of time Key Themes Biography Biology/Evolution Culture/History Geology/Paleontology Philosophy Physics/Chemistry Psychology/Literature Religion/Theology Theories/Concepts
Download or read book Mind Games written by Martin Cohen and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This original and innovative book is an exploration of one of the key mysteries of the mind, the question of consciousness. Conducted through a one month course of both practical and entertaining ‘thought experiments’, these stimulating mind-games are used as a vehicle for investigating the complexities of the way the mind works. By turns, fun, eye-opening and intriguing approach to thinking about thinking, which contains inventive and engaging ‘thought experiments’ for the general reader Includes specially drawn illustrations by the French avant-garde artist, Judit Reunites the social science disciplines of psychology, sociology and political theory with the traditional concerns of philosophy
Download or read book Cognitive Science in Education and Alternative Teaching Strategies written by Boris Aberšek and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cognitive science deals with such questions as 'How do we think?' and 'How do we learn, memorize, dream?'. It tackles the subject of human mentality by connecting discoveries from a range of disciplines that shed light on cognitive occurrences and the learning process. Cognitive science unites the fields of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and social sciences. This book, aimed mostly at teachers, will provoke cognitive dissonance and intellectual unease, as it explores cognitive theories and allows teachers to update and internalise their ‘in-head theories’, embedded from their own school years. In order for this to happen, this volume provides information on new experiences of alternative teaching practices. Creating conditions for gaining these teaching experiences is the primary function and fundamental mission of politics in the field of education.
Download or read book Migraine Words and Fiction written by Joost Haan and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2022-05-11 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are many migraine sufferers worldwide. However, the lack of confirmatory scan or blood test poses a major barrier to their diagnosis, which must be based on their account of the pain. As a consequence, language is of utmost importance in the diagnosis of migraine. This book deals with this relation between words and migraine, and considers how persons with migraine make their pain ‘readable’ and how fictional texts ‘perform’ migraine. Its analysis utilises the theories of Wittgenstein (‘beetle in the box’), Foucault, de Saussure and Scarry, as well as works of fiction including Hustvedt’s The Blindfold, Lasdun’s The Horned Man and Yalom’s When Nietzsche Wept.
