Download or read book An Anatomy of Skepticism written by Manfred Weidhorn and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2006 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every thoughtful person must ask, "What do I know?" The two most explosive fields, religion and politics, are notably filled with strident and conflicting claims. Close analysis in clear language reveals that no one knows what he or she is talking about. Because of the challenge of unexamined assumptions, of unclear cause-and-effect relationships, and of the rarity of reliable sources, a person who wants to be open-minded cannot avoid adopting skepticism as the least embarrassing philosophy. Some discoveries made in this book: *Reason appears to prove nothing *Intuition is probably a delusion *Facts are slippery *Religious people yearn for suicide *Why socialism cannot work *Where conservatives screwed up badly (as they admit) *The equation STAR+2R+R3=GPS explains the cultural history of the world *Shakespeare was a skeptic *Dante's curious insight into love *Passing the Magic Johnson test *Tom De Lay does not realize that relativism is as American as apple pie *Hamlet, who never existed, is more real than you or I. Here is a sample observation: "People believe in God because the Bible tells all about him, and they believe in the Bible because God wrote or inspired it. This is a classic case of the Fallacy of Circular Reasoning."
Download or read book Metaepistemology and Skepticism written by Richard A. Fumerton and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 1995-11-21 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this excellent treatment of the internalism-externalism debate in contemporary epistemology, Richard Fumerton explores its implications for traditional skeptical concerns. When one fully understands these implications, Fumerton argues, one will see philosophical usefulness of a foundationalism relying on acquaintance. Contending that the externalist response to skepticism is too quick and easy, Fumerton defends a version of internalism, but in doing so puts into stark relief the radically different alternatives for dealing with skepticism that our metaepistemological views force upon us.
Download or read book Knowledge written by Jennifer Nagel and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is knowledge? Is it the same as opinion or truth? Do you need to be able to justify a claim in order to count as knowing it? How can we know that the outer world is real and not a dream? Questions like these have existed since ancient times, and the branch of philosophy dedicated to answering them - epistemology - has been active for thousands of years. In this thought-provoking Very Short Introduction, Jennifer Nagel considers the central problems and paradoxes in the theory of knowledge and draws attention to the ways in which philosophers and theorists have responded to them. By exploring the relationship between knowledge and truth, and considering the problem of scepticism, Nagel introduces a series of influential historical and contemporary theories of knowledge, incorporating methods from logic, linguistics, and psychology, using a number of everyday examples to demonstrate the key issues and debates. 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.
Download or read book Neo Stoicism and Skepticism in Part One of Don Quijote written by Daniel Lorca and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains how Cervantes took advantage of neo-stoicism and skepticism to remove the authority of the romances of chivalry, which was a popular genre during his time. It also explains why his strategy, which would have been instantly recognizable during the period, is no longer effective: our current moral systems are significantly different from the moral systems that were influential during Cervantes’s time, and consequently, what used to be self-evident is no longer the case. Therefore, this book may be useful to the literary critic interested in the philosophical foundations of Don Quijote, to the moral philosopher interested in the differences between pre-enlightenment virtue-ethics and current moral systems, and also in the field of the history of ideas. Don Quijote offers a unique opportunity to observe changes in moral thinking throughout time because it is a universal book, discussed extensively throughout out the centuries, and therefore the on-going discussion offers strong evidence to discover how morality has changed, and continues to change, through time.
Download or read book The Skeptic s Guide to Sports Science written by Nicholas Tiller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-03-27 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global health and fitness industry is worth an estimated $4 trillion. We spend $90 billion each year on health club memberships and $100 billion each year on dietary supplements. In such an industrial climate, lax regulations on the products we are sold (supplements, fad-diets, training programs, gadgets, and garments) result in marketing campaigns underpinned by strong claims and weak evidence. Moreover, our critical faculties are ill-suited to a culture characterized by fake news, social media, misinformation, and bad science. We have become walking, talking prey to 21st-Century Snake Oil salesmen. In The Skeptic’s Guide to Sports Science, Nicholas B. Tiller confronts the claims behind the products and the evidence behind the claims. The author discusses what might be wrong with the sales pitch, the glossy magazine advert, and the celebrity endorsements that our heuristically-wired brains find so innately attractive. Tiller also explores the appeal of the one quick fix, the fallacious arguments that are a mainstay of product advertising, and the critical steps we must take in retraining our minds to navigate the pitfalls of the modern consumerist culture. This informative and accessible volume pulls no punches in scrutinizing the plausibility of, and evidence for, the most popular sports products and practices on the market. Readers are encouraged to confront their conceptualizations of the industry and, by the book’s end, they will have acquired the skills necessary to independently judge the effectiveness of sports-related products. This treatise on the commercialization of science in sport and exercise is a must-read for exercisers, athletes, students, and practitioners who hope to retain their intellectual integrity in a lucrative health and fitness industry that is spiraling out-of-control.
Download or read book The Anatomy of Violence written by Adrian Raine and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2013 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provocative and timely: a pioneering neurocriminologist introduces the latest biological research into the causes of--and potential cures for--criminal behavior. With an 8-page full-color insert, and black-and-white illustrations throughout.
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 Anatomy of Antiliberalism written by Stephen Holmes and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holmes challenges the philosophical arguments of the high communitarians ... and their intellectual forebears. By the time he is finished, the opposing camp has no survivors, ancient or modern. Anybody who feels drawn to the high communitarian cause owes it to himself (though not to society) to read Mr. Holmes's book; everybody else should read it for pleasure.
Download or read book A Skeptic s Guide to the Mind written by Robert A. Burton, M.D. and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if our soundest, most reasonable judgments are beyond our control? Despite 2500 years of contemplation by the world's greatest minds and the more recent phenomenal advances in basic neuroscience, neither neuroscientists nor philosophers have a decent understanding of what the mind is or how it works. The gap between what the brain does and the mind experiences remains uncharted territory. Nevertheless, with powerful new tools such as the fMRI scan, neuroscience has become the de facto mode of explanation of behavior. Neuroscientists tell us why we prefer Coke to Pepsi, and the media trumpets headlines such as "Possible site of free will found in brain." Or: "Bad behavior down to genes, not poor parenting." Robert Burton believes that while some neuroscience observations are real advances, others are overreaching, unwarranted, wrong-headed, self-serving, or just plain ridiculous, and often with the potential for catastrophic personal and social consequences. In A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind, he brings together clinical observations, practical thought experiments, personal anecdotes, and cutting-edge neuroscience to decipher what neuroscience can tell us – and where it falls woefully short. At the same time, he offers a new vision of how to think about what the mind might be and how it works. A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind is a critical, startling, and expansive journey into the mysteries of the brain and what makes us human.
Download or read book Anatomy of an Epidemic written by Robert Whitaker and published by Crown. This book was released on 2010-04-13 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated with bonus material, including a new foreword and afterword with new research, this New York Times bestseller is essential reading for a time when mental health is constantly in the news. In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Interwoven with Whitaker’s groundbreaking analysis of the merits of psychiatric medications are the personal stories of children and adults swept up in this epidemic. As Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, other societies have begun to alter their use of psychiatric medications and are now reporting much improved outcomes . . . so why can’t such change happen here in the United States? Why have the results from these long-term studies—all of which point to the same startling conclusion—been kept from the public? Our nation has been hit by an epidemic of disabling mental illness, and yet, as Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals, the medical blueprints for curbing that epidemic have already been drawn up. Praise for Anatomy of an Epidemic “The timing of Robert Whitaker’s Anatomy of an Epidemic, a comprehensive and highly readable history of psychiatry in the United States, couldn’t be better.”—Salon “Anatomy of an Epidemic offers some answers, charting controversial ground with mystery-novel pacing.”—TIME “Lucid, pointed and important, Anatomy of an Epidemic should be required reading for anyone considering extended use of psychiatric medicine. Whitaker is at the height of his powers.” —Greg Critser, author of Generation Rx
Download or read book Kant s Anatomy of the Intelligent Mind written by Wayne Waxman and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to current philosophical lore, Kant rejected the notion that philosophy can progress by psychological means and endeavored to restrict it accordingly. This book reverses the frame from Kant the anti-psychological critic of psychological philosophy to Kant the preeminent psychological critic of non-psychological philosophy.
Download or read book Scepticism written by Duncan Pritchard and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the nature of scepticism, asking when it is legitimate, for example as the driver of new ideas, and when it is problematic. It also tackles how scepticism is related to contemporary social and political phenomena, such as fake news, and examines a radical form of scepticism which maintains that knowledge is impossible.
Download or read book Hume s Radical Scepticism and the Fate of Naturalized Epistemology written by K. Meeker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-05-30 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating David Hume as a partner in a continuing philosophical dialogue, this book tries to come to terms with Hume's influential thoughts on scepticism and naturalism in a way that sheds light on contemporary philosophy and its relationship to science.
Download or read book Skeptic written by Michael Shermer and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collected essays from bestselling author Michael Shermer's celebrated columns in Scientific American For fifteen years, bestselling author Michael Shermer has written a column in Scientific American magazine that synthesizes scientific concepts and theory for a general audience. His trademark combination of deep scientific understanding and entertaining writing style has thrilled his huge and devoted audience for years. Now, in Skeptic, seventy-five of these columns are available together for the first time; a welcome addition for his fans and a stimulating introduction for new readers.
Download or read book The Anatomy of Negation written by Edgar Saltus and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Anatomy of Myth written by Michael W. Herren and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anatomy of Myth is a comprehensive study of the methods of interpreting authoritative myths from the Presocratic philosophers to the Neoplatonists and their adoption by the Church Fathers.
Download or read book Anatomy of a Seance written by Stan McMullin and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2004-03-19 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MacKenzie King did it, so did Susanna Moody. In fact, many Canadians consulted the spirits as part of a religious experience, to seek guidance for themselves and others, and to attempt to learn what lies beyond the grave. Some came to the seance room to hear ancient wisdom while others came to understand the nature of psychic phenomena. Like the mechanisms that produced the flashing lights, cool breezes, and whirling trumpets that materialized in the presence of the medium, their beliefs and experiences have been mostly hidden, until now. In this first full-length study of Canadian spirit communication, Stan McMullin has drawn upon seance notes, letters, diaries, and special collections to create a fascinating picture of how educated people were drawn to spiritualism and psychic research. Anatomy of a Seance shows that for many Canadians attempting to sort out their religious beliefs and find an acceptable marriage between religion and science the seance room provided an alternative to formal religious dogma. Despite the opposition of mainline churches, spiritualism offered the possibility of a "scientific" religion that could prove the existence of heaven.
