Download or read book Causality and Scientific Explanation Medieval and early classical science written by William A. Wallace and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Causality and Scientific Explanation written by William A. Wallace and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Causality and Modern Science written by Mario Bunge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The causal problem has become topical once again. While we are no longer causalists or believers in the universal truth of the causal principle we continue to think of causes and effects, as well as of causal and noncausal relations among them. Instead of becoming indeterminists we have enlarged determinism to include noncausal categories. And we are still in the process of characterizing our basic concepts and principles concerning causes and effects with the help of exact tools. This is because we want to explain, not just describe, the ways of things. The causal principle is not the only means of understanding the world but it is one of them.The demand for a fourth edition of this distinguished book on the subject of causality is clear evidence that this principle continues to be an important and popular area of philosophic enquiry. Non-technical and clearly written, this book focuses on the ontological problem of causality, with specific emphasis on the place of the causal principle in modern science. Mario Bunge first defines the terminology employed and describes various formulations of the causal principle. He then examines the two primary critiques of causality, the empiricist and the romantic, as a prelude to the detailed explanation of the actual assertions of causal determinism.Bunge analyzes the function of the causal principle in science, touching on such subjects as scientific law, scientific explanation, and scientific prediction. In so doing, he offers an education to layman and specialist alike on the history of a concept and its opponents. Professor William A. Wallace, author of Causality and Scientific Explanation said of an earlier edition of this work: "I regard it as a truly seminal work in this field."
Download or read book Four Ages of Understanding written by John Deely and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2001-07-01 with total page 1054 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first full-scale demonstration of the centrality of the theory of signs to the history of philosophy, Four Ages of Understanding provides a new vantage point from which to review and reinterpret the development of intellectual culture at the threshold of "globalization."
Download or read book The Division and Methods of the Sciences written by Saint Thomas (Aquinas) and published by PIMS. This book was released on 1986 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book PSA 1974 written by Robert S. Cohen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For this book, we have selected papers from symposia and contributed sessions at the fourth biennial meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, held at the University of Notre Dame on November 1-3, 1974. The meeting was lively and well-attended, and we regret that there was no way to record here the many stimulating discussions after the papers and during the informal hours. We also regret that we had in sufficient space for all the contributed papers. Even more, some of the symposia were not available: those on systems and decision theory (c. W. Churchman, P. Suppes, I. Levi), and on the Marxist philosophy of science (M. W. Wartofsky, R. S. Cohen, E. N. Hiebert). Unhappily several individual contributions to other symposia were likewise not available: I. Velikovsky in the session on his own work and the politics of science, D. Finkelstein in the session on quantum logic. Memorial minutes were read for Alan Ross Anderson (prepared by Nuel Belnap) and for Imre Lakatos (prepared by Paul Feyerabend). They initiate this volume of philosophy of science in the mid-seventies.
Download or read book Averroes and the Metaphysics of Causation written by Barry S. Kogan and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1985-01-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Averroes and the Metaphysics of Causation examines the controversial causation issue. That causes produce their effects and can be known to do so is the view that Averroes defends in his Tahafut Al-Tahafut, where he summarizes and evaluates the debates about causation--debates that took place over several generations between the philosophers and the theologians of medieval Islam. Drawing from his Tahafut, his commentaries, and other writings, Kogan shows that Averroes' discussion of causation represents a dialogue across the generations and a rich contribution to the history of the causal controversy. Averroes responds to al-Ghazali's proto-Humean critique of the philosophers' account which treats causation as an entailment relation. In this response Averroes develops an independent position that is of philosophical interest because it clearly anticipates many of the contemporary responses to Hume associated with the singularist position. Building on this analysis, Kogan resolves many long-standing paradoxes in Averroes' treatment of miracles, eternal creation, God's causal knowing, and the theory of emanation.
Download or read book What Functions Explain written by Peter McLaughlin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-12-18 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2001 book offers an examination of functional explanation as it is used in biology and the social sciences, and focuses on the kinds of philosophical presuppositions that such explanations carry with them. It tackles such questions as: why are some things explained functionally while others are not? What do the functional explanations tell us about how these objects are conceptualized? What do we commit ourselves to when we give and take functional explanations in the life sciences and the social sciences? McLaughlin gives a critical review of the debate on functional explanation in the philosophy of science. He discusses the history of the philosophical question of teleology, and provides a comprehensive review of the post-war literature on functional explanation. What Functions Explain provides a sophisticated and detailed Aristotelian analysis of our concept of natural functions, and offers a positive contribution to the ongoing debate on the topic.
Download or read book Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy Volume 7 written by Robert Pasnau and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best new scholarly work on philosophy from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. OSMP combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness, and will be an essential resource for anyone working in the area.
Download or read book Science in the Middle Ages written by David C. Lindberg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, sixteen leading scholars address themselves to providing as full an account of medieval science as current knowledge permits. Designed to be introductory, the authors have directed their chapters to a beginning audience of diverse readers.
Download or read book William of Auvergne and Robert Grosseteste written by Steven P. Marrone and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the seminal works of two early thirteenth-century philosophers, Steven P. Marrone shows how the idea of science" and the desire to be "scientific" first penetrated the scholarly discourse of the medieval West. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Abduction and Induction written by P.A. Flach and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the very beginning of their investigation of human reasoning, philosophers have identified two other forms of reasoning, besides deduction, which we now call abduction and induction. Deduction is now fairly well understood, but abduction and induction have eluded a similar level of understanding. The papers collected here address the relationship between abduction and induction and their possible integration. The approach is sometimes philosophical, sometimes that of pure logic, and some papers adopt the more task-oriented approach of AI. The book will command the attention of philosophers, logicians, AI researchers and computer scientists in general.
Download or read book Prelude to Galileo written by W. A. Wallace and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can it be true that Galilean studies will be without end, without conclusion, that each interpreter will find his own Galileo? William A. Wallace seems to have a historical grasp which will have to be matched by any further workers: he sees directly into Galileo's primary epoch of intellectual formation, the sixteenth century. In this volume, Wallace provides the companion to his splendid annotated translation of Galileo 's Early Notebooks: The Physical Questions (University of Notre Dame Press, 1977), pointing to the 'realist' sources, mainly unearthed by the author himself during the past two decades. Explicit controversy arises, for the issues are serious: nominalism and realism, two early rivals for the foundation of knowledge, contend at the birth of modem science, OI better yet, contend in our modem efforts to understand that birth. Related to this, continuity and discontinuity, so opposed to each other, are interwoven in the interpretive writings ever since those striking works of Duhem in the first years of this century, and the later studies of Annaliese Maier, Alexandre Koyre and E. A. Moody. Historio grapher as well as philosopher, WaUace has critically supported the continuity of scientific development without abandoning the revolutionary transforma tive achievement of Galileo's labors. That continuity had its contemporary as well as developmental quality; and we note that William Wallace's Prelude studies are complementary to Maurice A.
Download or read book Nature and Scientific Method written by Daniel O. Dahlstrom and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2018-03-02 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume is a collection of systematic and historical studies addressing the terms of Aristotelian inference.
Download or read book The Attribution of Blame written by K.G. Shaver and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we identify the causes of events? What does it mean to assert that someone is responsible for a moral affront? Under what circumstances should we blame others for wrongdoing? The related, but conceptually distinct, issues of causality, responsibility, and blameworthiness that are the subject of this book play a critical role in our everyday social encounters. As very young children we learn to assert that "it wasn't my fault," or that "I didn't mean to do it." Responsibility and blame follow us into adulthood, as personal or organizational failings require explanation. Although judgments of moral accountability are quickly made and adamantly defended, the process leading to those judgments is not as simple as it might seem. Psychological research on causality and responsibility has not taken complete advantage of a long tradition of philosophical analysis of these concepts. Philosophical discussions, for their part, have not been sufficiently I1ware of the psychological realities. An assignment of blame is a social explanation. It is the outcome of a process that begins with an event having negative consequences, involves judgments about causality, personal responsibility, and possible mitigation. The result can be an assertion, or a denial, of individual blameworthiness. The purpose of this book is to develop a comprehensive theory of how people assign blame.
Download or read book Nature and the Artificial written by Edward Engelmann and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years now much attention has been given to the phenomenon of the artificial. Speculation regarding “what is real?” abounds in the sciences, literature, as well as films and other visual arts. This work presents the first critical, sustained, philosophical study on this topic. Nature and the Artificial: Aristotelian Reflections on the Operative Imperative reveals the inner logic of the artificial by reflecting it off the metaphysical relationship between nature and techne as conceived by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. During early modernity, figures such as Descartes and Bacon transformed this understanding, giving rise to the notion of the “operative imperative.” Nature and techne, for the Aristotelian tradition and for us, can only be understood in terms of their dialectical relationship to one another. Aristotle articulates this relationship with the phrase “techne imitates nature.” With the operative imperative, however, a certain reversal takes place, whereby techne becomes the paradigm for nature. As Ed Engelmann demonstrates, the operative imperative, together with the phenomenon of the artificial it implies, stands to Aristotelian metaphysics of nature as image is to original. Anyone who believes that the rise of the artificial in our civilization needs the intensive study it deserves—as well as those who are seeking innovative insights into Aristotelian tradition—will want to read this book.
Download or read book Su rez s Metaphysics in Its Historical and Systematic Context written by Lukáš Novák and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-08-29 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the importance of Francisco Suárez has been, for some time already, generally recognized even outside the circles of historians of scholasticism, the wider context of his thought – i.e., the rich and diverse Renaissance and Baroque scholasticism – remains largely unexplored. This book is an attempt to contribute to the quest of putting Suárez’s metaphysics (a mere fragment of the whole of his intellectual legacy) into context, historical and systematic. Being the fruit of an international conference held in Prague in October 2008, it puts together a systematically ordered selection of papers devoted to general and specific topics of Suárezian metaphysics, with special respect to its sources and further impact. Part One explores in the first place the notion of being and the nature of metaphysics in general; Part Two then deals with more specific metaphysical topics such as the problem of universals, causality, relations, and God. The book will be of value not just to Suárez-scholars, but to anyone interested in the history of ideas in general and in the the intricacies of metaphysical thought at the verge of modernity in particular.
