Existence

Existence
Author: Peter van Inwagen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2014-04-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1139868047

The problem of the nature of being was central to ancient and medieval philosophy, and continues to be relevant today. In this collection of thirteen recent essays, Peter van Inwagen applies the techniques of analytical philosophy to a wide variety of problems in ontology and meta-ontology. Topics discussed include the nature of being, the meaning of the existential quantifier, ontological commitment, recent attacks on metaphysics and ontology, the concept of ontological structure, fictional entities, mereological sums, and the ontology of mental states. Van Inwagen adopts a generally 'Quinean' position in meta-ontology, yet reaches ontological conclusions very different from Quine's. The volume includes two previously unpublished essays, one of which is an introductory essay where van Inwagen explains his conception of the relation between the language of 'the ordinary business of life' and that of 'the ontology room'. The volume will be an important collection for students and scholars of metaphysics.

Reflections on the Existence of God

Reflections on the Existence of God
Author: Richard Simmons, 3rd
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019-11-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781939358226

This book is a series of short essays seeking to answer life's most enduring question: Does God exist? I have attempted to craft a book that is well researched (I have been conducting this research for over 30 years) but also easy to read and understand. Each essay can be read in less than 10 minutes. In the end it is important to know whether God exists or He does not exist. There is no third option. What I am seeking to do in this book is to determine which of these beliefs is true and which one is not.

On the Existence of Digital Objects

On the Existence of Digital Objects
Author: Yuk Hui
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2016-02-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1452949921

Digital objects, in their simplest form, are data. They are also a new kind of industrial object that pervades every aspect of our life today—as online videos, images, text files, e-mails, blog posts, Facebook events.Yet, despite their ubiquity, the nature of digital objects remains unclear. On the Existence of Digital Objects conducts a philosophical examination of digital objects and their organizing schema by creating a dialogue between Martin Heidegger and Gilbert Simondon, which Yuk Hui contextualizes within the history of computing. How can digital objects be understood according to individualization and individuation? Hui pursues this question through the history of ontology and the study of markup languages and Web ontologies; he investigates the existential structure of digital objects within their systems and milieux. With this relational approach toward digital objects and technical systems, the book addresses alienation, described by Simondon as the consequence of mistakenly viewing technics in opposition to culture. Interdisciplinary in philosophical and technical insights, with close readings of Husserl, Heidegger, and Simondon as well as the history of computing and the Web, Hui’s work develops an original, productive way of thinking about the data and metadata that increasingly define our world.

The Existence Of Amy

The Existence Of Amy
Author: Lana Grace Riva
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2019-08-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9781086835816

Amy has a normal life. That is, if you were to go by a definition of 'no obvious indicators of peculiarity', and you didn't know her very well. She has good friends, a good job, a nice enough home. This normality, however, is precariously plastered on top of a different life. A life that is Amy's real life. The only one her brain will let her lead. What is it really like to live with mental illness? An insight into the reality of life with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety and depression. "a book that raises awareness", "thought provoking", "powerful", "amazing and crucial read" - reader reviews

Five Proofs of the Existence of God

Five Proofs of the Existence of God
Author: Edward Feser
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2017-08-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1681497808

This book provides a detailed, updated exposition and defense of five of the historically most important (but in recent years largely neglected) philosophical proofs of God’s existence: the Aristotelian, the Neo-Platonic, the Augustinian, the Thomistic, and the Rationalist. It also offers a thorough treatment of each of the key divine attributes—unity, simplicity, eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, perfect goodness, and so forth—showing that they must be possessed by the God whose existence is demonstrated by the proofs. Finally, it answers at length all of the objections that have been leveled against these proofs. This work provides as ambitious and complete a defense of traditional natural theology as is currently in print. Its aim is to vindicate the view of the greatest philosophers of the past— thinkers like Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, Leibniz, and many others— that the existence of God can be established with certainty by way of purely rational arguments. It thereby serves as a refutation both of atheism and of the fideism that gives aid and comfort to atheism.

A Paradigm Theory of Existence

A Paradigm Theory of Existence
Author: W.F. Vallicella
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9401705887

The heart of philosophy is metaphysics, and at the heart of the heart lie two questions about existence. What is it for any contingent thing to exist? Why does any contingent thing exist? Call these the nature question and the ground question, respectively. The first concerns the nature of the existence of the contingent existent; the second concerns the ground of the contingent existent. Both questions are ancient, and yet perennial in their appeal; both have presided over the burial of so many of their would-be undertakers that it is a good induction that they will continue to do so. For some time now, the preferred style in addressing such questions has been deflationary when it has not been eliminativist. Ask Willard Quine what existence is, and you will hear that "Existence is what existential quantification expresses. "! Ask Bertrand Russell what it is for an individual to exist, and he will tell you that an individual can no more exist than it can be numerous: there 2 just is no such thing as the existence of individuals. And of course Russell's eliminativist answer implies that one cannot even ask, on pain of succumbing to the fallacy of complex question, why any contingent individual exists: if no individual exists, there can be no question why any individual exists. Not to mention Russell's modal corollary: 'contingent' and 'necessary' can only be said de dicto (of propositions) and not de re (of things).

Collected Articles on the Existence of God

Collected Articles on the Existence of God
Author: Gaven Kerr
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2022-10-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3868382712

The twentieth century witnessed an explosion of scholarly interest in the philosophical thought of St Thomas Aquinas. One of the fruits of that Thomistic revival was an uncovering of St Thomas’s original contributions to many areas of philosophy, not least metaphysics. In the twenty first century, there has been renewed interest in Aquinas’s argumentation for the existence of God. This interest flows from an engagement with the work of the twentieth century scholars in presenting Aquinas’s own characteristic metaphysics. What we have seen is an interpretation and presentation of Aquinas’s proofs for God’s existence in terms of Thomas’s unique insights into the nature of being and the metaphysical structure of reality. Gaven Kerr has been one such author who has contributed in numerous ways to the revival of interest in Aquinas’s argumentation for the existence of God and its metaphysical buttressing. Over the last ten years Kerr has published articles on Aquinas’s various proofs for God’s existence and the metaphysics standing behind those proofs; this volume draws together those articles. Herein are included Kerr’s articles on per se ordered series, existential inertia, the proof in De Ente et Essentia, the argument from motion in the Summa Contra Gentiles, and the five ways themselves. Kerr has also written two new articles for this volume: one on the possibility of demonstrating God’s existence, and the other on how to move from God’s existence to God’s nature. This volume offers an overview of Kerr’s thinking over the last decade on Aquinas’s thought on the existence of God.

Proclus: On the Existence of Evils

Proclus: On the Existence of Evils
Author: Carlos Steel
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2014-04-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1472501039

Proclus' On the Existence of Evils is not a commentary, but helps to compensate for the dearth of Neoplatonist ethical commentaries. The central question addressed in the work is: how can there be evil in a providential world? Neoplatonists agree that it cannot be caused by higher and worthier beings. Plotinus had said that evil is matter, which, unlike Aristotle, he collapsed into mere privation or lack, thus reducing its reality. He also protected higher causes from responsibility by saying that evil may result from a combination of goods. Proclus objects: evil is real, and not a privation. Rather, it is a parasite feeding off good. Parasites have no proper cause, and higher beings are thus vindicated as being the causes only of the good off which evil feeds.

Proving the Existence of God

Proving the Existence of God
Author: Borges C. Pasteur
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2011-05-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1462871828

Herein this book is great works found within the highest power of thoughts shared from a young writer by the name of Borges C. Pasteur. In this book you will find so many things that point to the existences of God, through faith, facts, nature, scriptures, science history and thoughts that before was not heard of, until the making of this book came to be. The goal of these great texts is to give one the greater understandings of the world, space, time and the ordinance that God the Creator left for us to enjoy in the righteous manner and so much more, in which one can come to believe in the Creator of the heaven and the earth. Also you will find quotes from great people like Jesus Christ the LORD of lords, Albert Einstein, Sr. Isaac Newton, Noah who build the ark and what God shared with him, Dr. King, a wonderful person I know and so many more to broaden your mind, to find and to look beyond religion and see that God lives on. That the entire human race exists for this Greater purpose of God. But we must first live this life the here and now, before understanding beyond what we can see, that is eternity, to one day have it in come our grips by being worthy of it. We must first love the little things and understand them. So we can know what we are here for and have to fulfill before we can understand the greater things of God that would blow our minds, if we were to see them and know them now. Just for what you are going to read in this book it will bring a great amount of understanding to your mind. Things like, the purpose for the sand of the sea, what causes the ocean tides to divided, the reason we see the rainbow in the sky today, what science cannot fully explain but only found within the Holy bible, the meaning of the word Bible, the things our founding Fathers new about our great country. You will know some of these insights just from reading what God allowed me to find and explain in this book, it will bring you more and greater understanding and broaden your thoughts to think highly on a normal bases. You will love what comes to mind, so enjoy what I now understand, in which many of the brilliant mind of the past understood.