On the Nature of Philosophy and Other Philosophical Essays

On the Nature of Philosophy and Other Philosophical Essays PDF Author: Nicholas Rescher
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783868381375
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 129

Book Description
This book continues Rescher's longstanding practice of publishing groups of philosophical essays. Notwithstanding their thematic diversity, these discussions exhibit a uniformity of method in addressing philosophical issues via a mixture of historical contextualization, analytical scrutiny, and common-sensical concern. Their interest, such as it is, lies not just in what they do but in how they do it.

On the Nature of Philosophy and Other Philosophical Essays

On the Nature of Philosophy and Other Philosophical Essays PDF Author: Nicholas Rescher
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110320207
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Book Description
This book continues Rescher’s longstanding practice of publishing groups of philosophical essays. Notwithstanding their thematic diversity, these discussions exhibit a uniformity of method in addressing philosophical issues via a mixture of historical contextualization, analytical scrutiny, and common-sensical concern. Their interest, such as it is, lies not just in what they do but in how they do it.

Between Naturalism and Religion

Between Naturalism and Religion PDF Author: Jürgen Habermas
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745694608
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Two countervailing trends mark the intellectual tenor of our age – the spread of naturalistic worldviews and religious orthodoxies. Advances in biogenetics, brain research, and robotics are clearing the way for the penetration of an objective scientific self-understanding of persons into everyday life. For philosophy, this trend is associated with the challenge of scientific naturalism. At the same time, we are witnessing an unexpected revitalization of religious traditions and the politicization of religious communities across the world. From a philosophical perspective, this revival of religious energies poses the challenge of a fundamentalist critique of the principles underlying the modern Wests postmetaphysical understanding of itself. The tension between naturalism and religion is the central theme of this major new book by Jürgen Habermas. On the one hand he argues for an appropriate naturalistic understanding of cultural evolution that does justice to the normative character of the human mind. On the other hand, he calls for an appropriate interpretation of the secularizing effects of a process of social and cultural rationalization increasingly denounced by the champions of religious orthodoxies as a historical development peculiar to the West. These reflections on the enduring importance of religion and the limits of secularism under conditions of postmetaphysical reason set the scene for an extended treatment the political significance of religious tolerance and for a fresh contribution to current debates on cosmopolitanism and a constitution for international society.

Philosophical Essays

Philosophical Essays PDF Author: Bertrand Russell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317835700
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
First published in 1966. This collection of essays dates from the first decade of this century and marks an important perio in the evolution of Bertrand Russell's thought. Russell intended the collection 'to appeal to those who take an interest in philosophical questions without having had a professional training in philosophy'- those people will find these writings just as illuminating today.

The Importance of What We Care About

The Importance of What We Care About PDF Author: Harry G. Frankfurt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521336116
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Book Description
A collection of thirteen seminal essays on ethics, free will, and the philosophy of mind, first published in 1988.

The Understanding of Nature

The Understanding of Nature PDF Author: Marjorie Grene
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401022240
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Book Description
No student or colleague of Marjorie Grene will miss her incisive presence in these papers on the study and nature of living nature, and we believe the new reader will quickly join the stimulating discussion and critique which Professor Grene steadily provokes. For years she has worked with equally sure knowledge in the classical domain of philosophy and in modern epistemological inquiry, equally philosopher of science and metaphysician. Moreover, she has the deeply sensible notion that she should be a critically intelligent learner as much as an imaginatively original thinker, and as a result she has brought insightful expository readings of other philosophers and scientists to her own work. We were most fortunate that Marjorie Grene was willing to spend a full semester of a recent leave here in Boston, and we have on other occasions sought her participation in our colloquia and elsewhere. Now we have the pleasure of including among the Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science this generous selection from Grene's philosophical inquiries into the understanding of the natural world, and of the men and women in it. Boston University Center for the R. S. COHEN Philosophy and History of Science M. W. W ARTOFSKY April 1974 PREFACE This collection spans - spottily - years from 1946 ('On Some Distinctions between Men and Brutes') to 1974 ('On the Nature of Natural Necessity').

Being and Value and Other Philosophical Essays

Being and Value and Other Philosophical Essays PDF Author: Nicholas Rescher
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110321343
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
Being and Value collects together fifteen essays by Nicholas Rescher on salient issue in metaphysics, axiology and metaphilosophy. In the way in which they shed new light on significant philosophical issues, these deliberations are emblematic of Rescher’s characteristic way of illuminating timeless issues and historical perspectives in a reciprocal interrelationship. The chapter of the book are as follows: Being and Value: On the Prospect of Optimalism; On Evolution and Intelligent Design; Mind and Matter; Fallacies Regarding Free Will; Sophisticating Naïve Realism; Taxonomic Complexity and the Laws of Nature; Practical Vs. Theoretical Reason; Pragmatism as a Growth Industry; Cost Benefit Epistemology; Quantifying Quality; Explanatory Surdity; Can Philosophy be Objective?; On Ontology in Cognitive Perspective; Plenum Theory [Essay Written Jointly with Patrick Grim]; and Onometrics (On Referential Analysis in Philosophy)

Is Philosophy Dispensable?

Is Philosophy Dispensable? PDF Author: Nicholas Rescher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Book Description
"During 2005-2006 I continued my longstanding practice of writing occasional studies on philosophical topics, both for formal presentation and for informal discussion with colleagues. While my forays of this kind have usually been issued in journal publications, this has not been so in the preset case so that the studies offered here encompass substantially new material. Notwithstanding their thematic variation, they manifest a uniformity of treatment and method in a way that is characteristic of my philosophical modus operandi and inherent is its endeavors to treat classical issues from novel points of view." --Nicholas Rescher Contents Preface Chapter 1: IS PHILOSOPHY DISPENSABLE? (AN APORETIC ANALYSIS) Chapter 2:FIRST PRINCIPLES AND THEIR PLACEIN PHILOSOPHY Chapter 3: THE HUME-EDWARDS PRINCIPLE AND ITS PROBLEMS Chapter 4:THE LIMITS OF NATURALISM (NATURE AND CULTURE IN PERSPECTIVAL DUALITY) Chapter 5:ON UNIVERSALS, NATURAL KINDS, AND LAWS OF NATURE Chapter 6:AQUINAS AND THE PRINCIPLE OF EPISTEMIC DISPARITY Chapter 7:SELF-SUBSTANTIATING STATEMENTS Chapter 8:REGRET Chapter 9:THE PROBLEM OF EVIL Chapter 10:RATIONALITY, SELF-INTEREST, ALTRUISM, AND OBLIGATION Chapter 11:WHAT IS PRAGMATISM? Chapter 12:THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY Index of Names

Respect

Respect PDF Author: Richard Dean
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192558366
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
Respect plays a prominent role in contemporary moral philosophy, as well as our every-day moral thought. Ordinary discussion about morality is often framed in terms of demands for respect or complaints about being disrespected, yet basic questions about the concept and role of respect are frequently overlooked. Here, leading philosophers present their latest ideas and fresh perspectives to point research on the topic in new directions. Following an introduction to the historical rise of respect as a central concept in moral discourse, Part I addresses the fundamental questions of what respect is; its nature and basis. Part II then examines questions in moral theory, for example what exactly ought to be respected, what role respect plays in morality, and which different types of respect are appropriate and morally significant. Part III concludes with the practical application of requirements of respect, with implications for significant moral issues of our time including environmental ethics, social justice, disability, bioethics, and more.

Philosophical Essays, Volume 1

Philosophical Essays, Volume 1 PDF Author: Scott Soames
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691136815
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Book Description
The two volumes of Philosophical Essays bring together the most important essays written by one of the world's foremost philosophers of language. Scott Soames has selected thirty-one essays spanning nearly three decades of thinking about linguistic meaning and the philosophical significance of language. A judicious collection of old and new, these volumes include sixteen essays published in the 1980s and 1990s, nine published since 2000, and six new essays. The essays in Volume 1 investigate what linguistic meaning is; how the meaning of a sentence is related to the use we make of it; what we should expect from empirical theories of the meaning of the languages we speak; and how a sound theoretical grasp of the intricate relationship between meaning and use can improve the interpretation of legal texts. The essays in Volume 2 illustrate the significance of linguistic concerns for a broad range of philosophical topics--including the relationship between language and thought; the objects of belief, assertion, and other propositional attitudes; the distinction between metaphysical and epistemic possibility; the nature of necessity, actuality, and possible worlds; the necessary a posteriori and the contingent a priori; truth, vagueness, and partial definition; and skepticism about meaning and mind. The two volumes of Philosophical Essays are essential for anyone working on the philosophy of language.