Doubtful Certainties

Doubtful Certainties
Author: Jesús Padilla Gálvez
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2013-05-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110321920

To what extent can we doubt certainties? How are certainties expressed in words? Which language games convey certainty? To answer these questions we have to recall the method Wittgenstein used in his investigations. When we look at language games and forms of life as inseparable phenomena, do forms of life then provide any certainty? On the other hand, do we automatically relapse into relativism once we doubt certainties? Which formal structures underlie certainty and doubt? The book is intended to answer these questions.

Forms of Life and Language Games

Forms of Life and Language Games
Author: Jesús Padilla Gálvez
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2013-05-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110321904

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s writings inspired contemporary philosophical thinking and advanced many issues that had been addressed by traditional philosophy. The questions raised by the Viennese philosopher initiated debates on a reconsideration of philosophical terminology. This is especially true for a term that has generated at least three significant controversies since its creation and will probably generate more disputes in the following years. It is the expression “form(s) of life” which translates into German as “Lebensform(en)” and “Form des Lebens”. The present volume contains contributions on forms of life, language games and the influence of Wittgenstein’s philosophy on other scholears.

Doubt and Certainty in Climate Science

Doubt and Certainty in Climate Science
Author: Alan Longhurst
Publisher: Critical Science Press
Total Pages: 281
Release:
Genre: Science
ISBN: 8412586751

In "Doubt and Certainty in Climate Science," well-known oceanographer Alan Longhurst offers a unique vision of climate change and its scientific study. His deep knowledge of oceanographic research, fishery productivity, and marine ecological changes over several centuries made him doubt some of the postulates of climate science by scientists working on computers with only a few decades of data. In this book, the author reviews what scientists know about climate change, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns that give rise to uncertainties about future climate change that is causing far-reaching social and political change. Longhurst provides an incisive critical review of numerous topics in climate change. Beginning with a review of some regional temperature measurements, he questions the robustness of the leading indicator of climate change, a global average of widely differing measurements of sea and land surface temperature. The book offers unique insights worthy of consideration by those seeking to understand climate change, particularly the important role of the oceans in climate.

The Later Wittgenstein and Moral Philosophy

The Later Wittgenstein and Moral Philosophy
Author: Benjamin De Mesel
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2018-09-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3319976192

This book shows that Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later philosophical methods can be fruitfully applied to several problems in contemporary moral philosophy. The author considers Wittgenstein’s ethical views and addresses such topics as meta-ethics, objectivity in ethics and moral perception. Readers will gain an insight into how Wittgenstein thought about philosophical problems and a new way of looking at moral questions. The book consists of three parts. In the first part, Wittgenstein’s later philosophical methods are discussed, including his comparison of philosophical methods to therapies. The book then goes on to explore how these methods give insight into Wittgenstein’s ethical views. Readers will see how these are better understood when read in the light of his later philosophical thought. In the third part, Wittgenstein’s later methods are applied to problems in contemporary moral philosophy, including a look at questions for moral advice. The author reviews and criticizes some of the secondary literature on Wittgenstein’s later philosophical methods and indicates how the topic of the book can be developed in future research. There is something of value for readers of all levels in this insightful and well written volume. It will particularly appeal to scholars and students of Wittgenstein, of philosophy, and of ethics.

Resonances: Neurobiology, Evolution and Theology

Resonances: Neurobiology, Evolution and Theology
Author: Markus Mühling
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2014-09-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3647570362

Markus Mühling presents an epistemological theory of revelation as perception and a relational-narrative theological ontology based on the concept of dramatic coherence, in which the triune life is understood not as an anomaly within ontology, but rather as the decisive condition of its possibility. Mühling further demonstrates that potential for resolving certain theological problems arises if new insights from the natural sciences, such as the theory of the ecological brain in the neurosciences and the theory of niche-construction in evolutionary theory, are taken into account. Similarly, he also proposes that neuroscience and evolutionary biology can procure advantages from a dialogue with theology.

The Geography of Uncertainty

The Geography of Uncertainty
Author: Alessandro Ricci
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2023-08-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000916812

This book outlines the characteristics and implications of a potential geography of uncertainty. In doing so, it analyses this concept in reference to both the origins of uncertainty in Early Modern Age and the current geopolitical situation. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach to uncertainty, drawing on global perspectives and literature to define its meanings and characteristics. In order to develop a thorough and precise understanding of the geography of uncertainty, a broad perspective is adopted, which includes other forms of knowledge in which the concept of uncertainty is firmly established. As such the book creates temporal links, that may occasionally be far off from one another, to present a geographical perspective of uncertainty. It provides an interpretation of the phenomenon of globalization in a new way, relating it to the first European openness to global spaces, the Early Modern Age, and identifying the transition from the medieval world to the Modern Age as the first manifestation of uncertainty in geography. Uncertainty is more prevalent than ever in today's geopolitical, economic, financial and social reality, as well as the ongoing emergencies and crises. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach rooted in the geography of Early Modernity by referring to geopolitical scenarios, literature and philosophy, to target the historical roots and the prevailing configuration of the geography of uncertainty. It will appeal to scholars and students of human and political geography, politics, philosophy, international relations, economics and history.

Sense and Subjectivity

Sense and Subjectivity
Author: Philip Dwyer
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2023-11-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9004451536

The aim of this study is to show how the philosophies of Merleau-Ponty and the later Wittgenstein serve to establish, in very similar ways, (1) that subjects (persons) and what is subject-dependent, or in short, 'subjectivity', must be categorically distinguished from objects and what is subject-independent, or in short 'objectivity' and (2) that the 'sense' of the world as perceived, including linguistic sense, is a matter of the appearance of things and is therefore perception-dependent, and as such is in the category of subjectivity, not objectivity. The first claim is established not only by a study of the content of the arguments of the two philosophers, but also by a study of the form of their arguments: the kind of fallacy detection they deploy against their opponents exploits a logic dictated by the subject matter. In the course of examining a wide range of issues in meta- physics, epistemology, and the philosophies of mind, language, and mathematics, the 'Gestalt Philosophy' of Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty can be seen to constitute a new sort of 'anti-realism'.

Does God Doubt? R. Gershon Henoch Leiner’s Thought in Its Contexts

Does God Doubt? R. Gershon Henoch Leiner’s Thought in Its Contexts
Author: Jonathan Garb
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2024-03-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9004694234

Does God Doubt? shows that Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin considered God to be revealed as doubt. Thus, according to this profound and important nineteenth-century Hasidic leader, doubt is an essential aspect of the human condition, and especially of religious life. His position is shown to be remarkably bold and unique compared to kabbalistic writing, and especially to the Hasidic worlds to which he belonged. At the same time, the roots of his thought are located in earlier discussions of doubt as one of the highest parts of the divine world. Doubt about, in, and of God is part of the Hasidic contribution to modernity.

Language, Truth and Democracy

Language, Truth and Democracy
Author: Margit Gaffal
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2020-08-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110697505

The aim of this volume is to investigate three fundamental issues of the new millennium: language, truth and democracy. The authors approach the themes from different philosophical perspectives. One group of authors examines the use of language and the meaning of concepts from an analytic point of view, the ontology of scientific terms and explores the nature of knowledge in general. Another group examines truth and types of relation. A third group of authors focuses on the current factors influencing our concept of democracy and its legal foundations and makes reference to moral aspects and the question of political responsibility. The chapters provide the reader with an overview of current philosophical problems and the answers to these questions will be decisive for future development.