Examining Philosophy Itself

Examining Philosophy Itself
Author: Yafeng Shan
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2023-03-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1394160720

EXAMINING PHILOSOPHY ITSELF One of the most distinctive features of philosophy is self-reflection. Philosophers are not only concerned with metaphysical, epistemological, conceptual, ethical, and aesthetic issues of things around us, they also pay serious attention to the nature, value, methods, and development of philosophy itself. This book examines some of the most important metaphilosophical issues: Is philosophy progressive? Are metaphysical claims meaningful? What is the aim of philosophy? Should analytic metaphysics be replaced by naturalised metaphysics? What is the prospect of a digital approach to philosophy of science? Can poetry play a substantial role in philosophy? Examining Philosophy Itself will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in philosophy.

New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress

New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress
Author: Yafeng Shan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2022-11-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000780880

This collection of original essays offers a comprehensive examination of scientific progress, which has been a central topic in recent debates in philosophy of science. Traditionally, debates over scientific progress have focused on different methodological approaches, notably the epistemic and semantic approaches. The chapters in Part I of the book examine these two traditional approaches, as well as the newly revived functional and newly developed noetic approaches. Part II features in-depth case studies of scientific progress from the history of science. The chapters cover individual sciences including physics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, seismology, psychology, sociology, economics, and medicine. Finally, Part III of the book explores important issues from contemporary philosophy of science. These chapters address the implications of scientific progress for the scientific realism/anti-realism debate, incommensurability, values in science, idealisation, scientific speculation, interdisciplinarity, and scientific perspectivalism. New Philosophical Perspectives on Scientific Progress will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working on the history and philosophy of science.

Philosophy as a Way of Life

Philosophy as a Way of Life
Author: Michael Chase
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2013-09-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1405161612

Philosophy as a Way of Life This unique collection of essays on the late Pierre Hadot’s revolutionary methodological approach to studying and practicing philosophy explores Hadot’s primary conviction that philosophy itself goes beyond solving puzzles and analyzing abstract arguments. Hadot believed that philosophy is a key part of humanity’s search for happiness, that it can transform our perception of the world, and thus can alter our very mode of being. His argument that the goal of philosophy is to shift our focus away from our habitual obsession with individuality, and to embrace universality and objectivity, has resonated with thinkers across the Academy – and outside it. Offering genuinely interdisciplinary analysis of Hadot’s work and philosophical practice, this volume includes papers written from a gamut of philosophical, historical, and geographical perspectives. Articles address issues in the history of philosophy from Pythagoras to Descartes, by way of Islamic thought, thus corresponding to Hadot’s view of the importance of philologically based analysis of ancient texts and historical contexts. Others study the presence of ideas related to, or influenced by, Hadot in contemporary thought, from Wittgenstein to Leonard Nelson, analytic philosophy, and French postmodernism. The result is a wide-ranging publication pointing to an additional “third way” alongside the traditional approaches of Continental and analytic philosophy, one that expands our horizons with secular spiritual exercises designed to enable us to be in a fuller, more authentic way.

Making Meaning By Philosophy

Making Meaning By Philosophy
Author: Bob Lichtenbert
Publisher: 978-1-955206-02-0
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781955206020

"Making Meaning by Philosophy," tells you how the fields of philosophy can make meaning, defined as "positive impact," for yourself and others. Making meaning by philosophy involves having good effects in all areas of your life. This book begins by exploring philosophy itself for what it can do for the reader, especially as the highest type of knowing truths and as the study of wisdom. The third chapter develops for the first time how you can make meaning. The fourth chapter treats the universal laws of logic to guide all your thinking. Then this book asks whether or not nonphysical concepts such as love, justice, and beauty really exist and make meaning. Next, it asks what are the main ways of knowing big truths. How can you live a good or ethical life is the topic of Chapter 7. Then the book explains how to interpret and judge good artworks as meaningful to you. Arguments regarding whether God truly exists then determine if your meaning is immortal. This book concludes by examining ways in which you can be free from extremely powerful causes forcing all your choices. Isn't the main purpose that you exist to be free and to make meaning?

Making Sense of Evolution

Making Sense of Evolution
Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2010-02-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226668355

Making Sense of Evolution explores contemporary evolutionary biology, focusing on the elements of theories—selection, adaptation, and species—that are complex and open to multiple possible interpretations, many of which are incompatible with one another and with other accepted practices in the discipline. Particular experimental methods, for example, may demand one understanding of “selection,” while the application of the same concept to another area of evolutionary biology could necessitate a very different definition. Spotlighting these conceptual difficulties and presenting alternate theoretical interpretations that alleviate this incompatibility, Massimo Pigliucci and Jonathan Kaplan intertwine scientific and philosophical analysis to produce a coherent picture of evolutionary biology. Innovative and controversial, Making Sense of Evolution encourages further development of the Modern Synthesis and outlines what might be necessary for the continued refinement of this evolving field.

Problems from Philosophy

Problems from Philosophy
Author: James Rachels
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-03-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780073386607

"This [text] is an introduction to some of the main problems of philosophy—the existence of God, the nature of the mind, human freedom, the limits of knowledge, and the truth about ethics. The chapters may be read independently of one another, but when read in order, they tell a more or less continuous story. We begin with some reflections on the life of Socrates and then go on to the existence of God, which is the most basic philosophical question, because our answer to it affects everything else. This leads naturally to a discussion of death and the soul, and then to more modern ideas about the nature of persons. The later chapters are about whether we can have objective knowledge in either science or ethics." -from the Preface Problems from Philosophy represents the final work of author and philosopher James Rachels. In it, he brings the same liveliness and clarity to the introduction of philosophy that he brings to his best-selling ethics text, The Elements of Moral Philosophy. This second edition has been revised by Rachels' son Stuart, who carefully has carefully refined his father's work to further strengthen its clarity and accessibility.

Philosophical Tales

Philosophical Tales
Author: Martin Cohen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2009-01-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1444301055

Enlightening and entertaining, Philosophical Tales examinesa few of the fascinating biographical details of history’sgreatest philosophers (alas, mostly men) and highlights theircontributions to the field. By applying the true philosophicalapproach to philosophy itself, the text provides us with arefreshing 'alternative history' of philosophy. Opens up new philosophical debate by applying the truephilosophical approach to philosophy itself Provides summaries of the most celebrated and philosophicallyinteresting tales, their backgrounds, and assessments of theleading players Explores philosophers and schools of thought in one keyphilosophical text to supply a solid grounding in philosophicalideas and individuals Shakes some of the foundations of philosophy with the aim ofencouraging the reinvigoration of philosophy itself

Metaphilosophy

Metaphilosophy
Author: Henri Lefebvre
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2016-07-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1784782750

Leading French thinker with his key work on philosophical thought In Metaphilosophy, Henri Lefebvre works through the implications of Marx’s revolutionary thought to consider philosophy’s engagement with the world. Lefebvre takes Marx’s notion of the “world becoming philosophical and philosophy becoming worldly” as a leitmotif, examining the relation between Hegelian–Marxist supersession and Nietzschean overcoming. Metaphilosophy is conceived of as a transformation of philosophy, developing it into a programme of radical worldwide change. The book demonstrates Lefebvre’s threefold debt to Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, but it also brings a number of other figures into the conversation, including Sartre, Heidegger and Axelos. A key text in Lefebvre’s oeuvre, Metaphilosophy is also a milestone in contemporary thinking about philosophy’s relation to the world.

How Philosophy Became Socratic

How Philosophy Became Socratic
Author: Laurence Lampert
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 453
Release: 2010-07-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226470970

Plato’s dialogues show Socrates at different ages, beginning when he was about nineteen and already deeply immersed in philosophy and ending with his execution five decades later. By presenting his model philosopher across a fifty-year span of his life, Plato leads his readers to wonder: does that time period correspond to the development of Socrates’ thought? In this magisterial investigation of the evolution of Socrates’ philosophy, Laurence Lampert answers in the affirmative. The chronological route that Plato maps for us, Lampert argues, reveals the enduring record of philosophy as it gradually took the form that came to dominate the life of the mind in the West. The reader accompanies Socrates as he breaks with the century-old tradition of philosophy, turns to his own path, gradually enters into a deeper understanding of nature and human nature, and discovers the successful way to transmit his wisdom to the wider world. Focusing on the final and most prominent step in that process and offering detailed textual analysis of Plato’s Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic, How Philosophy Became Socratic charts Socrates’ gradual discovery of a proper politics to shelter and advance philosophy.

The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Literature

The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Literature
Author: Barry Stocker
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 779
Release: 2018-12-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1137547944

This comprehensive Handbook presents the major perspectives within philosophy and literary studies on the relations, overlaps and tensions between philosophy and literature. Drawing on recent work in philosophy and literature, literary theory, philosophical aesthetics, literature as philosophy and philosophy as literature, its twenty-nine chapters plus substantial Introduction and Afterword examine the ways in which philosophy and literature depend on each other and interact, while also contrasting with each other in that they necessarily exclude or incorporate each other. This book establishes an enduring framework for structuring the broad themes defining the relations between philosophy and literature and organising the main topics in the field. Key Features • Structured in five parts addressing philosophy as literature, philosophy of literature, philosophical aesthetics, literary criticism and theory, and main areas of work within philosophy and literature • An Introduction setting out the main concerns of the field through discussion of the major themes along with the individual topics • An Afterword looking at the interactions between philosophy and literature through itself enacting philosophical and literary writing while examining the question of how they can be brought together The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Literature is an essential resource for scholars, researchers and advanced students in philosophy of literature, philosophy as literature, literary theory, literature as philosophy, and the philosophical aesthetics of literature. It is an ideal volume for researchers, advanced students and scholars in philosophy, literary studies, philosophy and literature, cultural studies, classical studies and other related fields.