Mystery and Intelligibility

Mystery and Intelligibility
Author: Jeffrey Dirk Wilson
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2021-02-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0813234182

Philosophy is born in its history as pursuit of the wisdom we are never able fully to know. Mystery and Intelligibility: History of Philosophy as Pursuit of Wisdom both argues for that method and presents the results it can achieve. Editor Jeffrey Dirk Wilson has gathered essays from six philosophical luminaries. In “History, Philosophy, and the History of Philosophy,” Timothy B. Noone provides the volume’s discourse on method in which he distinguishes three tiers of history. History of philosophy as method occupies the third and highest tier. John Rist reckons with contemporary corruption of the method in “A Guide for the Perplexed or How to Present or Pervert the History of Philosophy.” Wilson’s own essay, “Wonder and the Discovery of Being: From Homeric Myth to the Natural Genera of Early Greek Philosophy,” shows the loss of wonder, so evident in mythology, by early Greek thinkers and its recovery by Plato and Aristotle. In “Metaphysics and the Origin of Culture,” Donald Phillip Verene demonstrates the wide cultural implications of philosophical discoveries even when the discovery is the boundary of what humans can know. William Desmond offers an essay, “Flux-Gibberish: For and Against Heraclitus,” that owes as much to the humor of James Joyce as to the philosophical insights of philosophers, ancient, medieval, and modern. Eric D. Perl’s essay turns to the apophatic character of pursuing wisdom, perhaps especially when asking what may be the most fundamental metaphysical question: “Into the Dark: How (Not) to Ask, ‘Why is There Anything at All.’” Philipp W. Rosemann concludes the volume with the question best asked at the end of this literary seminar, “What is Philosophy?” Although there are philosophers within the analytic and continental schools who are committed to the history of philosophy, Mystery and Intelligibility demonstrates that history of philosophy as a third and distinct philosophical method is revelatory of the nature and structure of reality.

The Bluffer's Guide to Opera

The Bluffer's Guide to Opera
Author: Peter Gammond
Publisher:
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2000
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 9781902825540

In most areas of human endeavor, bluffing is an easy way of getting by -- a method of artificially appearing knowledgeable. The Bluffer's Guides are a three million-copy best-selling series of snappy little books containing facts, jargon, and inside information -- all that readers need to know to hold their own among the experts.

Philosophical Devices: Proofs, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Sets

Philosophical Devices: Proofs, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Sets
Author: David Papineau
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2012-10-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191656240

This book is designed to explain the technical ideas that are taken for granted in much contemporary philosophical writing. Notions like denumerability, modal scope distinction, Bayesian conditionalization, and logical completeness are usually only elucidated deep within difficult specialist texts. By offering simple explanations that by-pass much irrelevant and boring detail, Philosophical Devices is able to cover a wealth of material that isnormally only available to specialists. The book contains four sections, each of three chapters. The first section is about sets and numbers, starting with the membership relation and ending with the generalized continuum hypothesis. The second is about analyticity, a prioricity, and necessity. The third is about probability, outlining the difference between objective and subjective probability and exploring aspects of conditionalization and correlation. The fourth deals with metalogic, focusing on the contrast between syntax andsemantics, and finishing with a sketch of Gödels theorem. Philosophical Devices will be useful for university students who have got past the foothills of philosophy and are starting to read more widely, but it does not assume any prior expertise. All the issues discussed are intrinsically interesting, and often downright fascinating. It can be read with pleasure and profit by anybody who is curious about the technical infrastructure of contemporary philosophy.

I Think, Therefore I Am

I Think, Therefore I Am
Author: Lesley Levene
Publisher: Michael O'Mara
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013-04-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781782430247

I Think, Therefore I Am is the ideal way to take the fear out of philosophy. Written in an accessible and entertaining style,I Think, Therefore I Am explains how and why philosophy began, and how the ways in which we live, learn, argue, vote and even spend our money have their origins in philosophical thought.

Bluffer's Guide To Etiquette

Bluffer's Guide To Etiquette
Author: William Hanson
Publisher: Haynes Publishing UK
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-06-26
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 9781785212383

Instantly acquire all the knowledge you need to pass as an expert in the world of etiquette and high society. Know what to say, what not to say, where to be seen, and what and what not to wear. Never again be found wanting when asked if someone is a PLU or a NQOCD, why port should be passed to the left, or how many air kisses you should aim at the proffered cheek of someone you barely know. Arm yourself with the essential words or phrases which have entered the etiquette lexicon from pre-revolutionary France, and know not to mix up your droit du seigneur with your noblesse oblige. Bask in the admiration of your aristocratic hosts as you enquire politely about the place à table, pronounce confidently on whether the going is heavy or soft, and hold your own against the most sneering of posturing parvenus.

The Bluffer's Guide to Management

The Bluffer's Guide to Management
Author: John Courtis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 68
Release: 1999
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781902825526

In most areas of human endeavor, bluffing is an easy way of getting by -- a method of artificially appearing knowledgeable. The Bluffer's Guides are a three million-copy best-selling series of snappy little books containing facts, jargon, and inside information -- all that readers need to know to hold their own among the experts.

The Bluffer's Guide to the Classics

The Bluffer's Guide to the Classics
Author: Ross Leckie
Publisher: Oval Projects Ltd
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2005
Genre: Authors, Classical
ISBN: 9781903096390

Be an instant expert in opera and bluff your way Z99 all aficianados No heroics required just a sense of humor From Demi-Gods to Democracy and Oracles to Oratory the Bluffers Guide to the Classics offers all you need to know to achieve th

H.P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture

H.P. Lovecraft in Popular Culture
Author: Don G. Smith
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2005-12-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 078642091X

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born late in the 19th century, but it was not until after his death in 1937 that he became a worldwide icon of horror and supernatural fiction. Influenced largely by Lord Dunsany and Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft's stories are known for their unique assimilation of gothic themes into science fiction. Lovecraft's influence has stretched far beyond literary horror, as a number of his works have been adapted for feature films, television episodes, comic book tales and, in recent years, video games. This scholarly study highlights Lovecraft's profound impact on 20th century popular culture. Early chapters introduce his complete writings, providing an annotated bibliography of the author's horror and science fiction tales. The works are discussed in the context of the Cthulhu Mythos, an invented mythology centering on ancient and alien beings interacting with the terrestrial world. Later chapters provide a filmography of motion pictures that credit Lovecraft or are identifiably adapted from his works, as well as a discussion of the works that have been adapted for television, comic books, role-playing video games, and music. The book concludes with a close examination of the Lovecraft legacy, commenting on his specific social and metaphysical ideologies and placing the author in context among such notable literary personalities as Mary Shelley, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Great Philosophers: Russell

The Great Philosophers: Russell
Author: Ray Monk
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2011-10-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 178022155X

'The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts' Bertrand Russell 'Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know' Bertrand Russell discovered mathematics at the age of eleven. It was, he recalled, a transporting experience: 'as dazzling as first love'. From that moment on, he would pursue his passion with undying devotion and fervour. Mathematics might succeed, he felt, where philosophy had failed, reducing thought to its purest form, and freeing knowledge from doubt and contradiction. And for a time, so it seemed. Russell's mathematical investigations effortlessly resolved at a stroke some of philosophy's most intractable problems. Yet if mathematics could be a liberating mistress, she was also an unreliable one... Opening up the work of one of our age's undisputed giants, Ray Monk's exhilaratingly clear, readable guide tells a compelling human tale too: a moving story of love and loss, of ecstatic triumph and deep disillusion.