Author: Joseph Keim Campbell
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262297906
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
Reflections on the metaphysics and epistemology of classification from a distinguished group of philosophers. Contemporary discussions of the success of science often invoke an ancient metaphor from Plato's Phaedrus: successful theories should "carve nature at its joints." But is nature really "jointed"? Are there natural kinds of things around which our theories cut? The essays in this volume offer reflections by a distinguished group of philosophers on a series of intertwined issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of classification. The contributors consider such topics as the relevance of natural kinds in inductive inference; the role of natural kinds in natural laws; the nature of fundamental properties; the naturalness of boundaries; the metaphysics and epistemology of biological kinds; and the relevance of biological kinds to certain questions in ethics. Carving Nature at Its Joints offers both breadth and thematic unity, providing a sampling of state-of-the-art work in contemporary analytic philosophy that will be of interest to a wide audience of scholars and students concerned with classification.
Carving Nature at Its Joints
Author: Joseph Keim Campbell
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262297906
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
Reflections on the metaphysics and epistemology of classification from a distinguished group of philosophers. Contemporary discussions of the success of science often invoke an ancient metaphor from Plato's Phaedrus: successful theories should "carve nature at its joints." But is nature really "jointed"? Are there natural kinds of things around which our theories cut? The essays in this volume offer reflections by a distinguished group of philosophers on a series of intertwined issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of classification. The contributors consider such topics as the relevance of natural kinds in inductive inference; the role of natural kinds in natural laws; the nature of fundamental properties; the naturalness of boundaries; the metaphysics and epistemology of biological kinds; and the relevance of biological kinds to certain questions in ethics. Carving Nature at Its Joints offers both breadth and thematic unity, providing a sampling of state-of-the-art work in contemporary analytic philosophy that will be of interest to a wide audience of scholars and students concerned with classification.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262297906
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
Reflections on the metaphysics and epistemology of classification from a distinguished group of philosophers. Contemporary discussions of the success of science often invoke an ancient metaphor from Plato's Phaedrus: successful theories should "carve nature at its joints." But is nature really "jointed"? Are there natural kinds of things around which our theories cut? The essays in this volume offer reflections by a distinguished group of philosophers on a series of intertwined issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of classification. The contributors consider such topics as the relevance of natural kinds in inductive inference; the role of natural kinds in natural laws; the nature of fundamental properties; the naturalness of boundaries; the metaphysics and epistemology of biological kinds; and the relevance of biological kinds to certain questions in ethics. Carving Nature at Its Joints offers both breadth and thematic unity, providing a sampling of state-of-the-art work in contemporary analytic philosophy that will be of interest to a wide audience of scholars and students concerned with classification.
Carving Nature at Its Joints
Author: Joseph Keim Campbell
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262015935
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
Reflections on the metaphysics and epistemology of classification from a distinguished group of philosophers. Contemporary discussions of the success of science often invoke an ancient metaphor from Plato's Phaedrus: successful theories should "carve nature at its joints." But is nature really "jointed"? Are there natural kinds of things around which our theories cut? The essays in this volume offer reflections by a distinguished group of philosophers on a series of intertwined issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of classification. The contributors consider such topics as the relevance of natural kinds in inductive inference; the role of natural kinds in natural laws; the nature of fundamental properties; the naturalness of boundaries; the metaphysics and epistemology of biological kinds; and the relevance of biological kinds to certain questions in ethics. Carving Nature at Its Joints offers both breadth and thematic unity, providing a sampling of state-of-the-art work in contemporary analytic philosophy that will be of interest to a wide audience of scholars and students concerned with classification.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262015935
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
Reflections on the metaphysics and epistemology of classification from a distinguished group of philosophers. Contemporary discussions of the success of science often invoke an ancient metaphor from Plato's Phaedrus: successful theories should "carve nature at its joints." But is nature really "jointed"? Are there natural kinds of things around which our theories cut? The essays in this volume offer reflections by a distinguished group of philosophers on a series of intertwined issues in the metaphysics and epistemology of classification. The contributors consider such topics as the relevance of natural kinds in inductive inference; the role of natural kinds in natural laws; the nature of fundamental properties; the naturalness of boundaries; the metaphysics and epistemology of biological kinds; and the relevance of biological kinds to certain questions in ethics. Carving Nature at Its Joints offers both breadth and thematic unity, providing a sampling of state-of-the-art work in contemporary analytic philosophy that will be of interest to a wide audience of scholars and students concerned with classification.
Writing the Book of the World
Author: Theodore Sider
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199697906
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 333
Book Description
Theodore Sider presents a broad new vision of metaphysics centred on the idea of structure. To describe the world well we must use concepts that 'carve at the joints', so that conceptual structure matches reality's structure. This approach illuminates a wide range of topics, such as time, modality, ontology, and the status of metaphysics itself.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199697906
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 333
Book Description
Theodore Sider presents a broad new vision of metaphysics centred on the idea of structure. To describe the world well we must use concepts that 'carve at the joints', so that conceptual structure matches reality's structure. This approach illuminates a wide range of topics, such as time, modality, ontology, and the status of metaphysics itself.
Think
Author: Simon Blackburn
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199769842
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
This is a book about the big questions in life: knowledge, consciousness, fate, God, truth, goodness, justice. It is for anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them. Think sets out to explain what they are and why they are important. Simon Blackburn begins by putting forward a convincing case for the study of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Wittgenstein have approached its central themes. Each chapter explains a major issue, and gives the reader a self-contained guide through the problems that philosophers have studied. The large scope of topics covered range from scepticism, the self, mond and body, and freedom to ethics and the arguments surrounding the existence of God. Lively and approachable, this book is ideal for all those who want to learn how the basic techniques of thinking shape our existence.
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199769842
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 317
Book Description
This is a book about the big questions in life: knowledge, consciousness, fate, God, truth, goodness, justice. It is for anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them. Think sets out to explain what they are and why they are important. Simon Blackburn begins by putting forward a convincing case for the study of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Wittgenstein have approached its central themes. Each chapter explains a major issue, and gives the reader a self-contained guide through the problems that philosophers have studied. The large scope of topics covered range from scepticism, the self, mond and body, and freedom to ethics and the arguments surrounding the existence of God. Lively and approachable, this book is ideal for all those who want to learn how the basic techniques of thinking shape our existence.
The Fragmentation of Being
Author: Kris McDaniel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191030384
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 475
Book Description
The Fragmentation of Being offers answers to some of the most fundamental questions in ontology. There are many kinds of beings but are there also many kinds of being? The world contains a variety of objects, each of which, let us provisionally assume, exists, but do some objects exist in different ways? Do some objects enjoy more being or existence than other objects? Are there different ways in which one object might enjoy more being than another? Most contemporary metaphysicians would answer "no" to each of these questions. So widespread is this consensus that the questions this book addressed are rarely even raised let alone explicitly answered. But Kris McDaniel carefully examines a wide range of reasons for answering each of these questions with a "yes". In doing so, he connects these questions with many important metaphysical topics, including substance and accident, time and persistence, the nature of ontological categories, possibility and necessity, presence and absence, persons and value, ground and consequence, and essence and accident. In addition to discussing contemporary problems and theories, McDaniel also discusses the ontological views of many important figures in the history of philosophy, including Aquinas, Aristotle, Descartes, Heidegger, Husserl, Kant, Leibniz, Meinong, and many more.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191030384
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 475
Book Description
The Fragmentation of Being offers answers to some of the most fundamental questions in ontology. There are many kinds of beings but are there also many kinds of being? The world contains a variety of objects, each of which, let us provisionally assume, exists, but do some objects exist in different ways? Do some objects enjoy more being or existence than other objects? Are there different ways in which one object might enjoy more being than another? Most contemporary metaphysicians would answer "no" to each of these questions. So widespread is this consensus that the questions this book addressed are rarely even raised let alone explicitly answered. But Kris McDaniel carefully examines a wide range of reasons for answering each of these questions with a "yes". In doing so, he connects these questions with many important metaphysical topics, including substance and accident, time and persistence, the nature of ontological categories, possibility and necessity, presence and absence, persons and value, ground and consequence, and essence and accident. In addition to discussing contemporary problems and theories, McDaniel also discusses the ontological views of many important figures in the history of philosophy, including Aquinas, Aristotle, Descartes, Heidegger, Husserl, Kant, Leibniz, Meinong, and many more.
Dialectic after Plato and Aristotle
Author: Thomas Bénatouïl
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108676251
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
Ancient dialectic started as an art of refutation and evolved into a science akin to our logic, grammar and linguistics. Scholars of ancient philosophy have traditionally focused on Plato's and Aristotle's dialectic without paying much attention to the diverse conceptions and uses of dialectic presented by philosophers after the classical period. To bridge this gap, this volume aims at a comprehensive understanding of the competing Hellenistic and Imperial definitions of dialectic and their connections with those of the classical period. It starts from the Megaric school of the fourth century BCE and the early Peripatetics, via Epicurus, the Stoics, the Academic sceptics and Cicero, to Sextus Empiricus and Galen in the second century CE. The philosophical foundations and various uses of dialectic are closely analysed and systematically examined together with the numerous objections that were raised against them.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108676251
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
Ancient dialectic started as an art of refutation and evolved into a science akin to our logic, grammar and linguistics. Scholars of ancient philosophy have traditionally focused on Plato's and Aristotle's dialectic without paying much attention to the diverse conceptions and uses of dialectic presented by philosophers after the classical period. To bridge this gap, this volume aims at a comprehensive understanding of the competing Hellenistic and Imperial definitions of dialectic and their connections with those of the classical period. It starts from the Megaric school of the fourth century BCE and the early Peripatetics, via Epicurus, the Stoics, the Academic sceptics and Cicero, to Sextus Empiricus and Galen in the second century CE. The philosophical foundations and various uses of dialectic are closely analysed and systematically examined together with the numerous objections that were raised against them.
Woodsman
Author: Ben Law
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 000749873X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 164
Book Description
Ben Law’s incredible sense of the land and his respect for age old traditions offers a wonderful insight into the life of Prickly Nut Wood.
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 000749873X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 164
Book Description
Ben Law’s incredible sense of the land and his respect for age old traditions offers a wonderful insight into the life of Prickly Nut Wood.
Ontology Made Easy
Author: Amie Lynn Thomasson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199385114
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
Existence questions have been topics for heated debates in metaphysics, but this book argues that they can often be answered easily, by trivial inferences from uncontroversial premises. This 'easy' approach to ontology leads to realism about disputed entities, and to the view that metaphysical disputes about existence questions are misguided.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199385114
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361
Book Description
Existence questions have been topics for heated debates in metaphysics, but this book argues that they can often be answered easily, by trivial inferences from uncontroversial premises. This 'easy' approach to ontology leads to realism about disputed entities, and to the view that metaphysical disputes about existence questions are misguided.
Of Men and Manners
Author: Anthony Quinton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199694559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
This is a collection of elegant and learned writings by the late Lord Quinton, one of the most prominent men of letters of the late twentieth century. The first part ranges over the last 400 years of intellectual history; in the second he discusses freedom, morality, politics, language, culture, and the relation between humans and animals.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199694559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
This is a collection of elegant and learned writings by the late Lord Quinton, one of the most prominent men of letters of the late twentieth century. The first part ranges over the last 400 years of intellectual history; in the second he discusses freedom, morality, politics, language, culture, and the relation between humans and animals.
A Knowledge Representation Practionary
Author: Michael K. Bergman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319980920
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 462
Book Description
This major work on knowledge representation is based on the writings of Charles S. Peirce, a logician, scientist, and philosopher of the first rank at the beginning of the 20th century. This book follows Peirce's practical guidelines and universal categories in a structured approach to knowledge representation that captures differences in events, entities, relations, attributes, types, and concepts. Besides the ability to capture meaning and context, the Peircean approach is also well-suited to machine learning and knowledge-based artificial intelligence. Peirce is a founder of pragmatism, the uniquely American philosophy. Knowledge representation is shorthand for how to represent human symbolic information and knowledge to computers to solve complex questions. KR applications range from semantic technologies and knowledge management and machine learning to information integration, data interoperability, and natural language understanding. Knowledge representation is an essential foundation for knowledge-based AI. This book is structured into five parts. The first and last parts are bookends that first set the context and background and conclude with practical applications. The three main parts that are the meat of the approach first address the terminologies and grammar of knowledge representation, then building blocks for KR systems, and then design, build, test, and best practices in putting a system together. Throughout, the book refers to and leverages the open source KBpedia knowledge graph and its public knowledge bases, including Wikipedia and Wikidata. KBpedia is a ready baseline for users to bridge from and expand for their own domain needs and applications. It is built from the ground up to reflect Peircean principles. This book is one of timeless, practical guidelines for how to think about KR and to design knowledge management (KM) systems. The book is grounded bedrock for enterprise information and knowledge managers who are contemplating a new knowledge initiative. This book is an essential addition to theory and practice for KR and semantic technology and AI researchers and practitioners, who will benefit from Peirce's profound understanding of meaning and context.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319980920
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 462
Book Description
This major work on knowledge representation is based on the writings of Charles S. Peirce, a logician, scientist, and philosopher of the first rank at the beginning of the 20th century. This book follows Peirce's practical guidelines and universal categories in a structured approach to knowledge representation that captures differences in events, entities, relations, attributes, types, and concepts. Besides the ability to capture meaning and context, the Peircean approach is also well-suited to machine learning and knowledge-based artificial intelligence. Peirce is a founder of pragmatism, the uniquely American philosophy. Knowledge representation is shorthand for how to represent human symbolic information and knowledge to computers to solve complex questions. KR applications range from semantic technologies and knowledge management and machine learning to information integration, data interoperability, and natural language understanding. Knowledge representation is an essential foundation for knowledge-based AI. This book is structured into five parts. The first and last parts are bookends that first set the context and background and conclude with practical applications. The three main parts that are the meat of the approach first address the terminologies and grammar of knowledge representation, then building blocks for KR systems, and then design, build, test, and best practices in putting a system together. Throughout, the book refers to and leverages the open source KBpedia knowledge graph and its public knowledge bases, including Wikipedia and Wikidata. KBpedia is a ready baseline for users to bridge from and expand for their own domain needs and applications. It is built from the ground up to reflect Peircean principles. This book is one of timeless, practical guidelines for how to think about KR and to design knowledge management (KM) systems. The book is grounded bedrock for enterprise information and knowledge managers who are contemplating a new knowledge initiative. This book is an essential addition to theory and practice for KR and semantic technology and AI researchers and practitioners, who will benefit from Peirce's profound understanding of meaning and context.