Download or read book Metaphysics Sophistry and Illusion written by Mark Balaguer and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysics, Sophistry, and Illusion introduces a novel kind of non-factualist view, and argues that we should endorse views of this kind in connection with a wide class of metaphysical questions. It also explains how these non-factualist views fit into a general anti-metaphysical view called neo-positivism.
Download or read book Metaphysics Sophistry and Illusion written by Mark Balaguer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysics, Sophistry, and Illusion does two things. First, it introduces a novel kind of non-factualist view, and argues that we should endorse views of this kind in connection with a wide class of metaphysical questions, most notably, the abstract-object question and the composite-object question. (More specifically, Mark Balaguer argues that there's no fact of the matter whether there are any such things as abstract objects or composite objects—or material objects of any other kind.) Second, Metaphysics, Sophistry, and Illusion explains how these non-factualist views fit into a general anti-metaphysical view called neo-positivism, and explains how we could argue that neo-positivism is true. Neo-positivism is the view that every metaphysical question decomposes into some subquestions—call them Q1, Q2, Q3, etc.—such that, for each of these subquestions, one of the following three anti-metaphysical views is true of it: non-factualism, or scientism, or metaphysically innocent modal-truth-ism. These three views can be defined (very roughly) as follows: non-factualism about a question Q is the view that there's no fact of the matter about the answer to Q. Scientism about Q is the view that Q is an ordinary empirical-scientific question about some contingent aspect of physical reality, and Q can't be settled with an a priori philosophical argument. And metaphysically innocent modal-truth-ism about Q is the view that Q asks about the truth value of a modal sentence that's metaphysically innocent in the sense that it doesn't say anything about reality and, if it's true, isn't made true by reality
Download or read book David Hume s Humanity written by S. Yenor and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scott Yenor argues that David Hume's reputation as a skeptic is greatly exaggerated and that Hume's skepticism is a moment leading Hume to defend common life philosophy and the humane commercial republic. Gentle, humane virtues reflect the proper reaction to the complex mixture of human faculties that define the human condition.
Download or read book Platonism and Anti Platonism in Mathematics written by Mark Balaguer and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Balaguer demonstrates that there are no good arguments for or against mathematical platonism. He does this by establishing that both platonism and anti-platonism are defensible. (Philosophy)
Download or read book Empty Ideas written by Peter Unger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the middle of the twentieth century, philosophers generally agreed that, by contrast with science, philosophy should offer no substantial thoughts about the general nature of concrete reality. Instead, philosophers offered conceptual truths. It is widely assumed that, since 1970, things have changed greatly. This book argues that's an illusion that prevails because of the failure to differentiate between "concretely substantial" and "concretely empty" ideas.
Download or read book The Metaphysics of Biology written by John Dupré and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-03 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Element is an introduction to the metaphysics of biology, a very general account of the nature of the living world. The first part of the Element addresses more traditionally philosophical questions - whether biological systems are reducible to the properties of their physical parts, causation and laws of nature, substantialist and processualist accounts of life, and the nature of biological kinds. The second half will offer an understanding of important biological entities, drawing on the earlier discussions. This division should not be taken too seriously, however: the topics in both parts are deeply interconnected. Although this does not claim to be a scientific work, it does aim to be firmly grounded in our best scientific knowledge; it is an exercise in naturalistic metaphysics. Its most distinctive feature is that argues throughout for a view of living systems as processes rather than things or, in the technical philosophical sense, substances.
Download or read book The Metaphysics Within Physics written by Tim Maudlin and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2007-04-19 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does physics tell us about metaphysics? Tim Maudlin's philosophical examination of the fundamental structure of the world as presented by physics challenges the most widely accepted philosophical accounts of laws of nature, universals, the direction of time and causation.
Download or read book The Problem of Universals in Early Modern Philosophy written by Stefano Di Bella and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-29 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient topic of universals was central to scholastic philosophy, which raised the question of whether universals exist as Platonic forms, as instantiated Aristotelian forms, as concepts abstracted from singular things, or as words that have universal signification. It might be thought that this question lost its importance after the decline of scholasticism in the modern period. However, the fourteen contributions contained in The Problem of Univerals in Early Modern Philosophy indicate that the issue of universals retained its vitality in modern philosophy. Modern philosophers in fact were interested in 3 sets of issues concerning universals: (i) issues concerning the ontological status of universals, (ii) issues concerning the psychology of the formation of universal concepts or terms, and (iii) issues concerning the value and use of universal concepts or terms in the acquisition of knowledge. Chapters in this volume consider the various forms of "Platonism," "conceptualism" and "nominalism" (and distinctive combinations thereof) that emerged from the consideration of such issues in the work of modern philosophers. Furthermore, this volume covers not only the canonical modern figures, namely, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant, but also more neglected figures such as Pierre Gassendi, Pierre-Sylvain Regis, Nicolas Malebranche, Henry More, Ralph Cudworth and John Norris.
Download or read book The Metaphysics of Being of St Thomas Aquinas in a Historical Perspective written by Leo J. Elders and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-12-06 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysics, formerly the queen of science, fell into oblivion under the onslaught of empiricism and positivism and its very possibllity came to be denied. Professor Elders traces the history of this process and shows how St. Thomas innovated in determining both the subject of metaphysics and the manner in which one enters this science, particularly in the framework of his Aristotle commentaries. The work then considers being and its properties, its divisions into being in act and being in potency, into the act of being essence, and into substance and the accidents. Finally the causes of being are considered. The work also introduces and surveys the extensive literature of Thomas interpretation of the past 50 years.
Download or read book Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem written by Mark Balaguer and published by Bradford Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this largely antimetaphysical treatment of free will and determinism, Mark Balaguer argues that the philosophical problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In the course of his argument, Balaguer provides a naturalistic defense of the libertarian view of free will. Balaguer claims that the compatibilism debate (the question of whether free will is compatible with determinism) is essentially irrelevant to metaphysical questions about the nature of human freedom, most notably "Do humans have free will?" Likewise, the questions "What is free will?" and "Which kinds of freedom are required for moral responsibility?" are argued to be irrelevant to substantive questions about the metaphysics of human free will. The metaphysical component of the problem of free will, Balaguer argues, essentially boils down to the question of whether humans possess libertarian free will. Furthermore, he argues that, contrary to the traditional wisdom, the libertarian question reduces to a question about indeterminacy—in particular, to a straightforward empirical question about whether certain neural events in our heads are causally undetermined in a certain specific way. In other words, Balaguer argues that the right kind of indeterminacy would bring with it all of the other requirements for libertarian free will. Finally, he argues that because there is no good evidence as to whether or not the relevant neural events are undetermined in the way that's required, the question of whether human beings possess libertarian free will is a wide-open empirical question. A Bradford Book
Download or read book Metaphysics The Basics written by Michael Rea and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysics: The Basics is a concise and engaging introduction to the philosophical study of the world and universe in which we live. Concerned with questions about reality, existence, time, identity and change, metaphysics has long fascinated people but to the uninitiated some of the issues and problems can appear very complex. In this lively and lucid book, Michael Rea examines and explains key questions in the study of metaphysics such as: • Can two things be in the same place at the same time? • Do creatures of fiction exist? • Are human beings free? • Is time travel possible? • Is there just one world or many worlds? With a glossary of key terms and suggestions for further reading, the book considers key philosophical arguments around Metaphysics, making this an ideal starting point for anyone seeking a full introduction to the debates both within and about metaphysics.
Download or read book Metaphysics written by Alyssa Ney and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-04-18 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metaphysics: An Introduction, Second Edition combines comprehensive coverage of the core elements of metaphysics with contemporary and lively debates within the subject. It provides a rigorous and yet accessible overview of a rich array of topics, connecting the abstract nature of metaphysics with the real world. Topics covered include: basic logic for metaphysics an introduction to ontology abstract objects material objects critiques of metaphysics natural and social kinds the metaphysics of race and gender grounding and fundamentality free will time modality persistence causation. This outstanding book not only equips the reader with a thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of metaphysics, but provides a valuable guide to contemporary metaphysics and metaphysicians. New for this second edition are updated sections on metaphysical indeterminacy; new sections on manipulation arguments and free will and neuroscience; and new chapters on the important topics of social ontology, fundamentality, and grounding. Additional features such as exercises, annotated further reading, a glossary, and a companion website https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9780815350491 have also been updated and will help students find their way around this subject and assist teachers in the classroom.
Download or read book A Companion to Metaphysics written by Jaegwon Kim and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 680 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fully extended and revised, A Companion to Metaphysics 2ndEdition includes a section of detailed review essays fromrenowned metaphysicians, and the addition of more than 30 newencyclopedic entries, taking the number of entries to over 300. Includes revisions to existing encyclopedic entries Features more than 30 all-new "A to Z" entries Offers a section of in-depth, essays from renownedmetaphysicians Provides the most complete and up-to-date reference guide forstudents and professionals alike
Download or read book The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics written by A. W. Moore and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 691 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book charts the evolution of metaphysics since Descartes and provides a compelling case for why metaphysics matters.
Download or read book Sophie s World written by Jostein Gaarder and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Download or read book Sovereign Reason written by Ernest Nagel and published by . This book was released on 1954 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Constructivism and the Metaphysics of Qualitative Research written by John Paley and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-09-30 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges the widespread assumption that a necessary preliminary to qualitative research is the formulation of ontological and epistemological beliefs. It argues that the metaphysical claims which supposedly underpin different approaches to social research do not make sense. Literally. Sentences such as ‘There is a single objective reality’ and ‘There are multiple constructed realities’ fail to make information-providing statements. They do not refer or describe. Despite appearances, they say nothing about reality (or realities) at a fundamental level, so they cannot be used to justify, ground, or align with, methodological decisions. The ‘necessary preliminary’ turns out not to be necessary at all; and we can dispense with, not just ‘paradigms’, but metaphysical underpinnings in general, whether structured as paradigms or not. Drawing on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, Carnap’s metametaphysics, and contemporary linguistics, the book suggests that the metaphysical claims of qualitative texts can be reinterpreted as performative. Ontological and epistemological beliefs are resolutions and proposals, recommendations for the use of language. They form part of a creed by means of which researchers enact the joining of an academic community. Written in Paley’s trademark clear, accessible and conversational style, the book points to a revolution in our understanding of the relation between metaphysics and social research. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in qualitative research and its philosophical foundations.
