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A Matter of Choice: The Decisive Effect on Human Affairs
by Philip HodgkissA Matter of Choice represents a substantive discussion of the concept of choice in human affairs, taken against the backdrop of ethics and religion. Drawing on a range of contributions, Hodgkiss demonstrates in this study that, though often not the primary issue under consideration, a concern with choice has featured continually in human thought from the Hellenistic world of the Stoics to the post-Kantian environment of modern philosophy. Moreover, he argues that the social and historical dimension of choice has been consistently underplayed, and that the role of choice in modern economic and political developments is underestimated at our peril. Through a critical account of the literature, Hodgkiss adeptly diagnoses the insufficiency of the current conception of the choice-making sovereign individual in the contemporary liberal-democratic capitalist context and outlines the implications of this philosophy for the choice-maker.
A Matter of Discourse: Community and Communication in Contemporary Philosophies (Routledge Revivals)
by Amós NascimentoFirst published in 1998. The emphasis upon differences, plurality and multiculturalism has led to an outpouring of information that has been interpreted by theories such as pragmatism, communitarianism, feminism, postmodern discourse and liberation ethics. Up to now, these issues have been seen as particular and external objects for theoretical discussion. This book goes to the heart of the matter and opens promising avenues for further philosophical reflection on these topics. Having the conception of communication in discourse theory as point of departure, scholars of distinct philosophical backgrounds move in and out of different contexts to offer a first-hand and in-depth account of the above positions in their dialogue with discourse theory. By establishing a web, they connect distinct issues that have been dealt with only separately thus far, without losing sight of differences. In the end, A Matter of Discourse shows that pluralism and multiculturalism are to be found within philosophy itself.
A Medical Educator's Guide to Thinking Critically about Randomised Controlled Trials: Deconstructing the "Gold Standard"
by Margaret MacDougallDrawing on the statistical and philosophical expertise of its authors, this book is designed to improve understanding and use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) among health professionals. It is intended for use primarily by medical educators involved in teaching statistics and evidence-based medicine (EBM) to medical students, junior doctors and other health professionals. However, each of the chapters serves a wider range of interests, including the practical needs of physicians in interpreting research evidence to support clinical decision making and the teaching needs of philosophers of medicine who want to more fully appreciate how RCTs work in practice and provide engaging examples for their students. Rather than compete with the proliferating methodological literature on RCT designs, this book focuses on cultivating a healthy skepticism among developing health professionals to support critical appraisal of their own and published work on RCTs at a fundamental level, including through a more informed understanding of the place of subgroup analyses in sound statistical inference. Management of the positive predictive value in the statistical analysis of RCT findings is included as an important topic for contemporary medical curricula. In comparing RCTs with non-randomised studies, a search for empirical evidence for the superiority of RCTs is initiated, pointing to the need for further work to confirm what form this evidence should take.Medical educators will find a wealth of reasons to encourage their students to think more critically about how the RCT operates in practice as a gold standard.
A Metaphysics for the Future (Routledge Revivals)
by Robert AllinsonThis title was first published in 2001. This work is intended to serve not only as an expression of a new idea of a philosophy, but as an "apologia" for philosophy as a legitimate and independent discipline in its own right. It argues that in the 20th century, truth has not been abandoned, but merely modified. The text proposes a return to truth and suggests that it is only after apprehending the truths of consciousness that the philosopher's mirror may become a kaleidoscope through which reality may be contemplated. First order truth lies in the realm of discovery, and discovery takes place only within the moment of subjective re-enactment.
A Metaphysics of Platonic Universals and their Instantiations: Shadow of Universals (Synthese Library #428)
by José Tomás AlvaradoThis book offers a detailed defense of a metaphysics of Platonic universals and a conception of particular objects that is coherent with said metaphysics. The work discusses all the main alternatives in metaphysics of properties and tries to show why universals are the entities that best satisfy the theoretical roles required for a property. The work also explains the advantages of Platonic over Aristotelian universals in the metaphysics of modality and natural laws. Moreover, it is argued that only Platonic universals are coherent with the grounding profile required for universals. The traditional objections against Platonism are discussed and answered. The third part of the book, finally, offers a conception of particular objects as nuclear bundles of tropes that is coherent with the Platonic ontology of universals. This book is of interest to anyone that wants to understand the current –and intricate– debate in metaphysics of properties and its incidence in many other areas in philosophy.
A Metaphysics of Psychopathology (Philosophical Psychopathology)
by Peter ZacharAn exploration of what it means to think about psychiatric disorders as “real,” “true,” and “objective” and the implications for classification and diagnosis.In psychiatry, few question the legitimacy of asking whether a given psychiatric disorder is real; similarly, in psychology, scholars debate the reality of such theoretical entities as general intelligence, superegos, and personality traits. And yet in both disciplines, little thought is given to what is meant by the rather abstract philosophical concept of “real.” Indeed, certain psychiatric disorders have passed from real to imaginary (as in the case of multiple personality disorder) and from imaginary to real (as in the case of post-traumatic stress disorder). In this book, Peter Zachar considers such terms as “real” and “reality”—invoked in psychiatry but often obscure and remote from their instances—as abstract philosophical concepts. He then examines the implications of his approach for psychiatric classification and psychopathology.Proposing what he calls a scientifically inspired pragmatism, Zachar considers such topics as the essentialist bias, diagnostic literalism, and the concepts of natural kind and social construct. Turning explicitly to psychiatric topics, he proposes a new model for the domain of psychiatric disorders, the imperfect community model, which avoids both relativism and essentialism. He uses this model to understand such recent controversies as the attempt to eliminate narcissistic personality disorder from the DSM-5. Returning to such concepts as real, true, and objective, Zachar argues that not only should we use these metaphysical concepts to think philosophically about other concepts, we should think philosophically about them.
A Minimal Metaphysics for Scientific Practice
by Andreas HüttemannWhat are the metaphysical commitments which best 'make sense' of our scientific practice (rather than our scientific theories)? In this book, Andreas Hüttemann provides a minimal metaphysics for scientific practice, i.e. a metaphysics that refrains from postulating any structure that is explanatorily irrelevant. Hüttemann closely analyses paradigmatic aspects of scientific practice, such as prediction, explanation and manipulation, to consider the questions whether and (if so) what metaphysical presuppositions best account for these practices. He looks at the role which scientific generalisation (laws of nature) play in predicting, testing, and explaining the behaviour of systems. He also develops a theory of causation in terms of quasi-inertial processes and interfering factors, and he proposes an account of reductive practices that makes minimal metaphysical assumptions. His book will be valuable for scholars and advanced students working in both philosophy of science and metaphysics.
A Minimalist Ontology of the Natural World (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics)
by Michael Esfeld Dirk-Andre DeckertThis book seeks to work out which commitments are minimally sufficient to obtain an ontology of the natural world that matches all of today’s well-established physical theories. We propose an ontology of the natural world that is defined only by two axioms: (1) There are distance relations that individuate simple objects, namely matter points. (2) The matter points are permanent, with the distances between them changing. Everything else comes in as a means to represent the change in the distance relations in a manner that is both as simple and as informative as possible. The book works this minimalist ontology out in philosophical as well as mathematical terms and shows how one can understand classical mechanics, quantum field theory and relativistic physics on the basis of this ontology. Along the way, we seek to achieve four subsidiary aims: (a) to make a case for a holistic individuation of the basic objects (ontic structural realism); (b) to work out a new version of Humeanism, dubbed Super-Humeanism, that does without natural properties; (c) to set out an ontology of quantum physics that is an alternative to quantum state realism and that avoids any ontological dualism of particles and fields; (d) to vindicate a relationalist ontology based on point objects also in the domain of relativistic physics.
A Miscellany of Modern Musings: Reflections from Modern Western Thinkers
by Peter Chong-Beng GanThe book starts off by giving a quick overview of the main phases within the history of philosophy in the Western tradition. It then homes in on the “modern” phase and proceeds to select key thinkers that represent that slice from the rich intellectual heritage of the West. The main chapters have these thinkers’ names as heading. The work is meant to be expository and discursive, suited to introduce the neophyte in philosophy to some of the big questions asked by philosophers and their methods of addressing these questions as well as their unique proposed answers. The coverage is selective rather than extensive; and hence, only a small portion of the philosopher’s corpus of writings will be hand-picked and considered.
A Missing Link in Cybernetics: Logic and Continuity (IFSR International Series in Systems Science and Systems Engineering #26)
by Alex M. AndrewThe text begins by reviewing the origins and aims of cybernetics with particular reference to Warren McCulloch's declared lifetime quest of "understanding man's understanding". It is shown that continuous systems can undergo complex self-organization, but a need for classification of situations becomes apparent and can be seen as the evolutionary beginning of concept-based processing. Possibilities for complex self-organization are emphasized by discussion of a general principle that has been termed significance feedback, of which backpropagation of errors in neural nets is a special case. It is also noted that continuous measures come to be associated with processing that is essentially concept-based, as acknowledged in Marvin Minsky's reference to heuristic connection between problems, and the associated basic learning heuristic of Minsky and Selfridge. This reappearance of continuity, along with observations on the multi-layer structure of intelligent systems, supports a potentially valuable view of intelligence as having a fractal nature. This is such that structures at a complex level, interpreted in terms of these emergent measures, reflect others at a simpler level. Implications for neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence are also examined. The book presents unconventional and challenging viewpoints that will be of interest to researchers in AI, psychology, cybernetics and systems science, and should help promote further research.
A Model–Theoretic Approach to Proof Theory (Trends in Logic #51)
by Henryk KotlarskiThis book presents a detailed treatment of ordinal combinatorics of large sets tailored for independence results. It uses model theoretic and combinatorial methods to obtain results in proof theory, such as incompleteness theorems or a description of the provably total functions of a theory.In the first chapter, the authors first discusses ordinal combinatorics of finite sets in the style of Ketonen and Solovay. This provides a background for an analysis of subsystems of Peano Arithmetic as well as for combinatorial independence results. Next, the volume examines a variety of proofs of Gödel's incompleteness theorems. The presented proofs differ strongly in nature. They show various aspects of incompleteness phenomena. In additon, coverage introduces some classical methods like the arithmetized completeness theorem, satisfaction predicates or partial satisfaction classes. It also applies them in many contexts. The fourth chapter defines the method of indicators for obtaining independence results. It shows what amount of transfinite induction we have in fragments of Peano arithmetic. Then, it uses combinatorics of large sets of the first chapter to show independence results. The last chapter considers nonstandard satisfaction classes. It presents some of the classical theorems related to them. In particular, it covers the results by S. Smith on definability in the language with a satisfaction class and on models without a satisfaction class. Overall, the book's content lies on the border between combinatorics, proof theory, and model theory of arithmetic. It offers readers a distinctive approach towards independence results by model-theoretic methods.
A Modern Introduction to Moral Philosophy
by Alan MontefioreOriginally published in 1958, this book shows how a systematic consideration of what exactly may be meant by calling anything ‘good’, inevitably leads on to the more general and fundamental problem of the relations between value-judgments and statements of fact. It does on to explain some of the difficult and far-reaching issues which this problem involves. The book is intended as an introduction for students interested in finding out the nature and point of modern methods of philosophic analysis when applied to problems of moral philosophy.
A Modern Legal Ethics: Adversary Advocacy in a Democratic Age
by Daniel MarkovitsA Modern Legal Ethics proposes a wholesale renovation of legal ethics, one that contributes to ethical thought generally. Daniel Markovits reinterprets the positive law governing lawyers to identify fidelity as its organizing ideal. Unlike ordinary loyalty, fidelity requires lawyers to repress their personal judgments concerning the truth and justice of their clients' claims. Next, the book asks what it is like--not psychologically but ethically--to practice law subject to the self-effacement that fidelity demands. Fidelity requires lawyers to lie and to cheat on behalf of their clients. However, an ethically profound interest in integrity gives lawyers reason to resist this characterization of their conduct. Any legal ethics adequate to the complexity of lawyers' lived experience must address the moral dilemmas immanent in this tension. The dominant approaches to legal ethics cannot. Finally, A Modern Legal Ethics reintegrates legal ethics into political philosophy in a fashion commensurate to lawyers' central place in political practice. Lawyerly fidelity supports the authority of adjudication and thus the broader project of political legitimacy. Throughout, the book rejects the casuistry that dominates contemporary applied ethics in favor of an interpretive method that may be mimicked in other areas. Moreover, because lawyers practice at the hinge of modern morals and politics, the book's interpretive insights identify--in an unusually pure and intense form--the moral and political conditions of all modernity.
A Modern Philosophy of Education (Routledge Library Editions: Education)
by Godfrey Thomson‘Philosophy’ in the context of this book means that the author is looking at education as a whole, without restrictions or simplifications; looking at ends and purposes, not merely at methods and means. He discusses early years education, the sociology and psychology of education as well as education in adolescence and adult education. Well-known as a critical pioneer of intelligence research the author discusses educational psychology as much as philosophy in this book.
A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st Century
by Gelong Thubten“Thubten is able to explain meditation using clear language and an approach which really speaks to our modern tech-infused lives.” —Rami Jawhar, Program Manager at Google Arts & CultureIn our never-ending search for happiness we often find ourselves looking to external things for fulfillment, thinking that happiness can be unlocked by buying a bigger house, getting the next promotion, or building a perfect family.In this profound and inspiring book, Gelong Thubten shares a practical and sustainable approach to happiness. Thubten, a Buddhist monk and meditation expert who has worked with everyone from school kids to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Benedict Cumberbatch, explains how meditation and mindfulness can create a direct path to happiness.A Monk’s Guide to Happiness explores the nature of happiness and helps bust the myth that our lives and minds are too busy for meditation. The book can show you how to:Learn practical methods to help you choose happinessDevelop greater compassion for yourself and othersLearn to meditate in micro-moments during a busy dayDiscover that you are naturally ‘hard-wired’ for happinessReading A Monk’s Guide to Happiness could revolutionize your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, and help you create a life of true happiness and contentment.“His writing is full of inspiration but also the pragmatism needed to form a sustainable practice. His book clearly illustrates why we all need meditation and mindfulness in our lives.” —Benedict Cumberbatch“[A] powerful debut . . . a highly accessible and jargon-free introduction to meditation.” —Publishers Weekly
A Moral Defense of Prostitution
by Rob LoveringIs prostitution immoral? In this book, Rob Lovering argues that it is not. Offering a careful and thorough critique of the many—twenty, to be exact—arguments for prostitution's immorality, Lovering leaves no claim unchallenged. Drawing on the relevant literature along with his own creative thinking, Lovering offers a clear and reasoned moral defense of the world's oldest profession. Lovering demonstrates convincingly, on both consequentialist and nonconsequentialist grounds, that there is nothing immoral about prostitution between consenting adults. The legal implications of this view are also brought to bear on the current discourse surrounding this controversial topic.
A Moral Inquiry into Epistemic Insights in Science Education: Personal and Global Perspectives of Socioscientific Issues (Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education #61)
by Ly DoThis edited volume reveals a reflective culmination of the Socioscientific Issues (SSI) framework that examines past, present, and future trends along with advances in the field of science education. It presents, for the first time, what the precursors and nascent features of the framework entailed and examines the underlying presuppositions that have guided this research program as it matured into present day conceptualizations and cutting-edge advances of the SSI framework along with implications for the future. More precisely, the volume examines what the impetus was for the factors preceding the framework, how it came to be formalized into a conceptual and theoretical framework, the philosophical, sociological, and psychological underpinnings of the framework, its role with respect to moral education in the context of science education, and what it means to pursue moral inquiry and epistemic insight in the practice of science teaching and learning through SSI. It offers global insights and perspectives of trends related to SSI from 40 scholars representing 16 nations.
A Moral Military, Revised and Expanded Edition
by Sidney AxinnShould a good soldier ever disobey a direct military order? Are there restrictions on how we fight a war? What is meant by 'military honor', and does it really affect the contemporary soldier? Is human dignity possible under battlefield conditions? Sidney Axinn considers these basic ethical questions within the context of the laws of warfare and answers 'yes' to each of these questions. In this study of the conduct of war, he examines actions that are honorable or dishonorable and provides the first full-length treatment of the military conventions from a philosophical point of view. Axinn gives a philosophical analysis of the 'Laws of Warfare' as found in the Hague and Geneva Conventions, which have been agreed to by almost every nation in the world. The aims of his study are to establish a basic twentieth-century framework for moral military action and to assist military personnel in analyzing their won professional ethic.Stating that moral reasoning is required by people in military uniform in a wide variety of situations, the author examines the question of the limits of military obedience. Axinn argues for the seriousness of the concept of military honor but limits honorable military activity by a strict interpretation of the notion of war crime. Major chapters deal with military honor, prisoners of war, spying, war crimes, the dirty-hands theory of command, nuclear weapons, terrorism, and covert operations. This philosophical study of the line between honorable and dishonorable military action cautions that in compliance with the war conventions professional military personnel and knowledgeable civilians must not lose their moral nerve nor abandon honor to satisfy immoral political requests. Author note: Sidney Axinn is Professor of Philosophy at Temple University.
A More Democratic Community: The Place of Democracy in the HIstory of European Integration (Studies in Contemporary European History #29)
by Sara Lorenzini Umberto TulliThe histories of European unification and of West European democracy during the second half of the twentieth century have often been considered as separate or even antagonistic processes with the institutions of European integration being regarded as bastions of bureaucratic rule. A More Democratic Community challenges this assumption and argues that European integration benefited from the democratic accountability of member states while contributing to the validation of national democratic institutions. However, it also unveils a paradox: as integration deepened, it diminished the power of national parliaments, sparking a democratic accountability crisis within the Community.
A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics
by Juanita TolliverFrom an MSNBC Political Analyst, a riveting account of the legendary party hosted by Diahann Carroll for Shirley Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign, which changed the playing field for Black women in politics. Joy-Ann Reid calls A More Perfect Party, "a beautifully written political-social page turner." In 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm broke the ice in American politics when she became the first Black woman to run for president of the United States. Chisholm left behind a coalition-building model personified by a once-in-an-era Hollywood party hosted by legendary actress and singer Diahann Carroll, and attended by the likes of Huey P. Newton, Barbara Lee, Berry Gordy, David Frost, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn and others. In A More Perfect Party, MSNBC political analyst Juanita Tolliver presents a path to people-centered politics through the lens of this soiree, with surprising parallels to our current electoral reality. Chisholm worked the crowd of movie stars, media moguls, music executives and activists gathered at Carroll&’s opulent Beverly Hills home, forging relationships with laughter as she urged guests to unify behind her campaign. With the feminist movement on the rise and eighteen- to twenty-year-olds voting for the first time in American history, the Democratic Party and the nation were on the cusp of long-overdue change. Zooming in on one party attendee per chapter, A More Perfect Party brings this whimsical event out of the margins of history to demonstrate that there is an opportunity for all of us to fight for a better nation and return power to the people.
A More Promising Musical Future: CMS Emerging Fields in Music (CMS Emerging Fields in Music)
by Michael StepniakToday’s higher education music faculty and administrators are faced with extraordinary pressure to adapt, innovate, and change. But what change is most critical to pursue – and how can it be brought about effectively? This concise volume brings together four seasoned thought leaders with distinct voices, each providing a complementary glimpse into how music faculty and administrators can help lead changes that truly matter. Making the case for transformations to better align music training in higher education with our culturally diverse society and the actual marketplace facing graduates, the perspectives collected here provide essential change management leadership strategies for music departments in the 21st century. Covering topics such as diversity and inclusion, institutional transformation, and preparing students for contemporary music careers, each chapter includes an outline of specific steps that can be taken individually and collectively towards needed change. Illuminating issues and providing practical suggestions, this book will enable both music faculty and administrators to confidently navigate change together with their communities.
A Most Elegant Equation: Euler's Formula and the Beauty of Mathematics
by David StippAn award-winning science writer introduces us to mathematics using the extraordinary equation that unites five of mathematics' most important numbersBertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry." This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's identity or God's equation, it includes just five numbers but represents an astonishing revelation of hidden connections. It ties together everything from basic arithmetic to compound interest, the circumference of a circle, trigonometry, calculus, and even infinity. In David Stipp's hands, Euler's identity formula becomes a contemplative stroll through the glories of mathematics. The result is an ode to this magical field.
A Narratological Approach to Lists in Detective Fiction (Crime Files)
by Sarah J. LinkThis open access book examines how the form of the list features as a tool for meaning-making in the genre of detective fiction from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The book analyzes how both readers and detectives rely on listing as an ordering and structuring tool, and highlights the crucial role that lists assume in the reading process. It extends the boundaries of an emerging field dedicated to the study of lists in literature and caters to a newly revived interest in form and New Formalist approaches in narratological research. The central aim of this book is to show how detective fiction makes use of lists in order to frame various conceptions of knowledge. The frames created by these lists are crucial to decoding the texts, and they can be used to demonstrate how readers can be engaged in the act of detection or manipulated into accepting certain propositions in the text.
A Nation Forged by Crisis: A New American History
by Jay SextonA concise new history of the United States revealing that crises--not unlike those of the present day--have determined our nation's course from the startIn A Nation Forged by Crisis, historian Jay Sexton contends that our national narrative is not one of halting yet inevitable progress, but of repeated disruptions brought about by shifts in the international system. Sexton shows that the American Revolution was a consequence of the increasing integration of the British and American economies; that a necessary precondition for the Civil War was the absence, for the first time in decades, of foreign threats; and that we cannot understand the New Deal without examining the role of European immigrants and their offspring in transforming the Democratic Party. A necessary corrective to conventional narratives of American history, A Nation Forged by Crisis argues that we can only prepare for our unpredictable future by first acknowledging the contingencies of our collective past.
A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie
by Dan EvansA Nation of Shopkeepers explores the unstoppable rise of the petite-bourgeoisie, one of the most powerful, but underexplored, classes in modern society.The petite-bourgeoisie — the insecure class between the working class and the bourgeoisie — is hugely significant within global politics. Yet it remains something of a mystery.Initially identified as a powerful political force by theorists like Marx and Poulantzas, the petit-bourgeoisie was expected to decline, as small businesses and small property were gradually swallowed up by monopoly capitalism. Yet, far from disappearing, structural changes to the global economy under neoliberalism have instead grown the petite-bourgeoisie, and the individualist values associated with it have been popularized by a society which fetishizes "aspiration", home ownership and entrepreneurship. So why has this happened?A Nation of Shopkeepers sheds a light on this mysterious class, exploring the class structure of contemporary Britain and the growth of the petite-bourgeoisie following Thatcherism. It shows how the rise of home ownership, small landlordism and radical changes to the world of work have increasingly inculcated values of petite-bourgeois individualism; how popular culture has promoted and reproduced values of aspiration and conspicuous consumption that militate against socialist organizing; and, most importantly, what the unstoppable rise of the petit-bourgeoisie means for the left.