Toward a Contextual Realism

Toward a Contextual Realism
Author: Jocelyn Benoist
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2021-07-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0674248481

An award-winning philosopher bridges the continental-analytic divide with an important contribution to the debate on the meaning of realism. Jocelyn Benoist argues for a philosophical point of view that prioritizes the concept of reality. The human mindÕs attitudes toward reality, he posits, both depend on reality and must navigate within it. Refusing the path of metaphysical realism, which would make reality an object of speculation in itself, independent of any reflection on our ways of approaching it or thinking about it, Benoist defends the idea of an intentionality placed in realityÑcontextualized. Intentionality is an essential part of any realist philosophical position; BenoistÕs innovation is to insist on looking to context to develop a renewed realism that draws conclusions from contemporary philosophy of language and applies them methodically to issues in the fields of metaphysics and the philosophy of the mind. ÒWhat there isÓÑthe traditional subject of metaphysicsÑcan be determined only in context. Benoist offers a sharp criticism of acontextual ontology and acontextual approaches to the mind and reality. At the same time, he opposes postmodern anti-realism and the semantic approach characteristic of classic analytic philosophy. Instead, Toward a Contextual Realism bridges the analytic-continental divide while providing the foundation for a radically contextualist philosophy of mind and metaphysics. ÒTo beÓ is to be in a context.

Austere Realism

Austere Realism
Author: Terence E. Horgan
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2009-08-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0262263203

A provocative ontological-cum-semantic position asserting that the right ontology is austere in its exclusion of numerous common-sense and scientific posits and that many statements employing such posits are nonetheless true. The authors of Austere Realism describe and defend a provocative ontological-cum-semantic position, asserting that the right ontology is minimal or austere, in that it excludes numerous common-sense posits, and that statements employing such posits are nonetheless true, when truth is understood to be semantic correctness under contextually operative semantic standards. Terence Horgan and Matjaz Potrc argue that austere realism emerges naturally from consideration of the deep problems within the naive common-sense approach to truth and ontology. They offer an account of truth that confronts these deep internal problems and is independently plausible: contextual semantics, which asserts that truth is semantically correct affirmability. Under contextual semantics, much ordinary and scientific thought and discourse is true because its truth is indirect correspondence to the world. After offering further arguments for austere realism and addressing objections to it, Horgan and Potrc consider various alternative austere ontologies. They advance a specific version they call “blobjectivism”—the view that the right ontology includes only one concrete particular, the entire cosmos (“the blobject”), which, although it has enormous local spatiotemporal variability, does not have any proper parts. The arguments in Austere Realism are powerfully made and concisely and lucidly set out. The authors' contentions and their methodological approach—products of a decade-long collaboration—will generate lively debate among scholars in metaphysics, ontology, and philosophy.

Magic Realism

Magic Realism
Author: Maria-Elena Angulo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2018-10-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317954238

Since the 1930s, Latin American writers have used magic realism to transcend the limits of the fantastic and illuminate social problems within the culture. The author considers five modern Latin American novels. Starting with two canonical texts of magic realism, Alejo Carpentier's El reino de este mundo (1949) and Garcia Marquez's Cien a-os de soledad (1967), the author argues that Los Sangurimas (1934), by the Ecuadorian Jos de la Cuadra, is a seminal work due to de la Cuadra's new approach to reality and his use of marvelous and hyperbolic elements. The author shows the continuation of this example in Ecuador in Demetrio Aguilera-Malta's Siete lunas y siete serpientes (1970) and Alicia Y nez Coss'o's Bruna, soroche y los tios (1972), which elucidate social problems of race, class, and gender through use of magic realism. In selecting for her study well-known writers such as Carpentier, Garcia Marquez, and others, less well-known such as de la Cuadra, Aguilera-Malta and Y nez Coss'o, the author demonstrates that both canonical and noncanonical writers for many years have been working on this new way of writing to interpret in fiction the highly complex Latin American reality.

Play: A Theory of Learning and Change

Play: A Theory of Learning and Change
Author: Tara Brabazon
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-12-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3319255495

This book examines the question of why ‘play’ is a happy and benevolent verb in childhood, yet a subjective label of behaviour in adulthood. It studies the transformation of the positively labelled term ‘child’s play’, used to refer to our early years, into an aberrance or deviation from normal social relationships in later life, when we speak of playing up or playing around. It answers the question by proposing play as a theory of learning, an ideology that circumscribes behaviour, and a way of thinking. Written by scholars of early childhood through to further and higher education, the book presents research on play enacted in a way that arches beyond the specificity of age groups or predictive, normative patterns. It is international in its focus, moving beyond insular, inward and parochial educational standards and limitations in one city, province, state or nation. Finally, it demonstrates the value of play to educational policy and theories of learning.

Inside the Politics of Technology

Inside the Politics of Technology
Author: Hans Harbers
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2005
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9053567569

Though the old saying claims that man is the measure of all things, the authors of Inside the Politics of Technology argue that the distinction implied between autonomous humans and neutral instruments of technology is an illusion. On the contrary, the technologies humans create simultaneously shape humans themselves. By means of case studies of technologies as diverse as video cameras, electric cars, pregnancy tests, and genetic screenings, this volume considers the implications of this "co-production" of technology and society for our philosophical and political ideas. Are only humans endowed with social, political, and moral agency, or does our technology share those qualities? And if so, how should we understand—or practice—a politics of technology?

Mobile Human-Computer Interaction - Mobile HCI 2004

Mobile Human-Computer Interaction - Mobile HCI 2004
Author: Mobile HCI (6, 2004, Glasgow)
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2004-09-02
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3540230866

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction, Mobile HCI 2004, held in Glasgow, UK, in September 2004. The 25 revised full papers, 20 revised short papers, and 22 revised posters presented together with summaries of 7 workshops and 2 panels were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 166 submissions. The full papers are organized in topical sections on screen and power limitations; user differences and navigation; evaluation and evaluation techniques, till, touch and text entry; auditory interactions; device differences and web pages; and novel interaction techniques.

How to Use Storytelling in Your Academic Writing

How to Use Storytelling in Your Academic Writing
Author: Timothy G. Pollock
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2021-02-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1839102829

Good writing skills and habits are critical for scholarly success. Every article is a story, and employing the techniques of effective storytelling enhances scholars’ abilities to share their insights and ideas, increasing the impact of their research. This book draws on the tools and techniques of storytelling employed in fiction and non-fiction writing to help academic writers enhance the clarity, presentation, and flow of their scholarly work, and provides insights on navigating the writing, reviewing, and coauthoring processes.

Quantum Adaptivity in Biology: From Genetics to Cognition

Quantum Adaptivity in Biology: From Genetics to Cognition
Author: Masanari Asano
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2015-04-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401798192

This book examines information processing performed by bio-systems at all scales: from genomes, cells and proteins to cognitive and even social systems. It introduces a theoretical/conceptual principle based on quantum information and non-Kolmogorov probability theory to explain information processing phenomena in biology as a whole. The book begins with an introduction followed by two chapters devoted to fundamentals, one covering classical and quantum probability, which also contains a brief introduction to quantum formalism, and another on an information approach to molecular biology, genetics and epigenetics. It then goes on to examine adaptive dynamics, including applications to biology, and non-Kolmogorov probability theory. Next, the book discusses the possibility to apply the quantum formalism to model biological evolution, especially at the cellular level: genetic and epigenetic evolutions. It also presents a model of the epigenetic cellular evolution based on the mathematical formalism of open quantum systems. The last two chapters of the book explore foundational problems of quantum mechanics and demonstrate the power of usage of positive operator valued measures (POVMs) in biological science. This book will appeal to a diverse group of readers including experts in biology, cognitive science, decision making, sociology, psychology, and physics; mathematicians working on problems of quantum probability and information and researchers in quantum foundations.