Modes of Thought

Modes of Thought
Author: Alfred North Whitehead
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1938
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 002935210X

Modes of Thought was written 20 years ago from lectures delivered by Whitehead at Wellesley, the University of Chicago, and Harvard. In it Whitehead developed the brilliant new concepts of clarity and precision of statement which have since become fundamental principles of construction underlying all of the fields of modern intellectual analysis.

The State of Nature

The State of Nature
Author: Gregg Mitman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1992-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780226532370

Although science may claim to be "objective," scientists cannot avoid the influence of their own values on their research. In The State of Nature, Gregg Mitman examines the relationship between issues in early twentieth-century American society and the sciences of evolution and ecology to reveal how explicit social and political concerns influenced the scientific agenda of biologists at the University of Chicago and throughout the United States during the first half of this century. Reacting against the view of nature "red in tooth and claw," ecologists and behavioral biologists such as Warder Clyde Allee, Alfred Emerson, and their colleagues developed research programs they hoped would validate and promote an image of human society as essentially cooperative rather than competitive. Mitman argues that Allee's religious training and pacifist convictions shaped his pioneering studies of animal communities in a way that could be generalized to denounce the view that war is in our genes.

Humean Nature

Humean Nature
Author: Neil Sinhababu
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2017-03-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191086479

Neil Sinhababu defends the Humean Theory of Motivation, according to which desire drives all human action and practical reasoning. Desire motivates us to pursue its object, makes thoughts of its object pleasant or unpleasant, focuses attention on its object, and is amplified by vivid representations of its object. These aspects of desire explain a vast range of psychological phenomena - why motivation often accompanies moral belief, how intentions shape our planning, how we exercise willpower, what it is to be a human self, how we express our emotions in action, why we procrastinate, and what we daydream about. Some philosophers regard such phenomena as troublesome for the Humean Theory, but the properties of desire help Humeans provide simpler and better explanations of these phenomena than their opponents can. The success of the Humean Theory in explaining a wide range of folk-psychological and experimental data, including those that its opponents cite in counterexamples, suggest that it is true. And the Humean Theory has revolutionary consequences for ethics, suggesting that moral judgments are beliefs about what feelings like guilt, admiration, and hope accurately represent in objective reality.

God and Nature in the Thought of Margaret Cavendish

God and Nature in the Thought of Margaret Cavendish
Author: Brandie R. Siegfried
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2016-04-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317126734

Only recently have scholars begun to note Margaret Cavendish’s references to 'God,' 'spirits,' and the 'rational soul,' and little has been published in this regard. This volume addresses that scarcity by taking up the theological threads woven into Cavendish’s ideas about nature, matter, magic, governance, and social relations, with special attention given to Cavendish’s literary and philosophical works. Reflecting the lively state of Cavendish studies, God and Nature in the Thought of Margaret Cavendish allows for disagreements among the contributing authors, whose readings of Cavendish sometimes vary in significant ways; and it encourages further exploration of the theological elements evident in her literary and philosophical works. Despite the diversity of thought developed here, several significant points of convergence establish a foundation for future work on Cavendish’s vision of nature, philosophy, and God. The chapters collected here enhance our understanding of the intriguing-and sometimes brilliant-contributions Cavendish made to debates about God’s place in the scientific cosmos.

The Nature of Thought

The Nature of Thought
Author: Brand Blanshard
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 533
Release: 2014-07-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1317851846

First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Nature of Thought

The Nature of Thought
Author: P. W. Jusczyk
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2014-05-22
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1317770188

First published in 1980. This is a collection of lectures around Professor Emeritus Don O.Hebb of Dalhousie University on the major trends in cognitive psychology. It includes essays on Hebb's ideas and impact on current psychological theorizing; his 'structure of thought', and a collection under the section of 'Information-Processing Analysis'.

The Nature of Thought

The Nature of Thought
Author: P. W. Jusczyk
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2014-05-22
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 131777017X

First published in 1980. This is a collection of lectures around Professor Emeritus Don O.Hebb of Dalhousie University on the major trends in cognitive psychology. It includes essays on Hebb's ideas and impact on current psychological theorizing; his 'structure of thought', and a collection under the section of 'Information-Processing Analysis'.

Thought Experiments between Nature and Society

Thought Experiments between Nature and Society
Author: Bojan Borstner
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 490
Release: 2017-06-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1443873152

As a prominent figure in analytic philosophy of the 20th and 21st centuries, Nenad Miščević has enriched, enhanced, and expanded many areas of the field. This volume, dedicated to him for his 65th birthday, follows the virtues he so much respects – conceptual analysis, rigorous use of logics, and clear definitions – and applies them to a very hot topic in philosophy, thought experiments. Present throughout the history of philosophy, thought experiments have become indispensable for the discipline and for analytic philosophy in particular. But questions can be asked, as to what exactly is a thought experiment, what it consists of, and, most importantly, if it is even useful for philosophy. Next to these conceptual questions, this collection tackles thought experiments that have tradition, some of them very long, like The Ring of Gyges, The Social Contract, and Descartes’ Evil Demon. Others, like Twin Earth, Gettier cases and Brain-in-a-Vat thought experiments, have prompted at least half-a-century-long trails. One cannot understand contemporary analytic philosophy without understanding these trails and traditions. Nenad’s closest friends and colleagues, from all over Europe, share their thoughts on this topic in this book, followed diligently by Nenad’s comments on their work.