A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities

A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities PDF Author: Roy A. Sorensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019982956X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities is a collection of puzzles, paradoxes, riddles, and miscellaneous logic problems. Depending on taste, one can partake of a puzzle, a poem, a proof, or a pun.

A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities

A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities PDF Author: Roy A. Sorensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019982956X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
A Cabinet of Philosophical Curiosities is a collection of puzzles, paradoxes, riddles, and miscellaneous logic problems. Depending on taste, one can partake of a puzzle, a poem, a proof, or a pun.

A Brief History of the Paradox

A Brief History of the Paradox PDF Author: Roy Sorensen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199728577
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift? Can time have a beginning? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Riddles, paradoxes, conundrums--for millennia the human mind has found such knotty logical problems both perplexing and irresistible. Now Roy Sorensen offers the first narrative history of paradoxes, a fascinating and eye-opening account that extends from the ancient Greeks, through the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and into the twentieth century. When Augustine asked what God was doing before He made the world, he was told: "Preparing hell for people who ask questions like that." A Brief History of the Paradox takes a close look at "questions like that" and the philosophers who have asked them, beginning with the folk riddles that inspired Anaximander to erect the first metaphysical system and ending with such thinkers as Lewis Carroll, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and W.V. Quine. Organized chronologically, the book is divided into twenty-four chapters, each of which pairs a philosopher with a major paradox, allowing for extended consideration and putting a human face on the strategies that have been taken toward these puzzles. Readers get to follow the minds of Zeno, Socrates, Aquinas, Ockham, Pascal, Kant, Hegel, and many other major philosophers deep inside the tangles of paradox, looking for, and sometimes finding, a way out. Filled with illuminating anecdotes and vividly written, A Brief History of the Paradox will appeal to anyone who finds trying to answer unanswerable questions a paradoxically pleasant endeavor.

Perceptual Ephemera

Perceptual Ephemera PDF Author: Thomas Crowther
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191033952
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Most research on perception has focused on the perceptual experience of three-dimensional, solid, bounded, and coherent material objects - items like tables and tomatoes. But as well as having perceptual experience of such objects, we also experience such aspects of the world as, for instance, rainbows and surfaces, shadows and absences: things that are ephemeral by contrast with material objects. This book presents fifteen new essays on the perceptual experience of such ephemera. The editors' introduction provides a detailed guide to the topic as a whole, setting out the thematic background to this emerging area of research in contemporary philosophy of perception. The volume winds a path through the ephemeral, considering such topics as sounds, smells, transparency, reflection, camouflage, solidity, and ambient vision. A general aim of the volume is to make a case that the broad range of ephemera it catalogues is far from marginal, or insubstantial with respect to their philosophical interest and value. Philosophical attention to perceptul ephemera may well suggest novel routes to arriving at a more developed understanding of perceptual experience at large and its characteristic features.

Contemporary Practice and Method in the Philosophy of Religion

Contemporary Practice and Method in the Philosophy of Religion PDF Author: David Cheetham
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441157115
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Among contemporary Anglo-American philosophers and students there is a growing awareness of the need to engage more both with philosophical perspectives of other faith traditions and also the distinctive 'continental' tradition of philosophy. This important new collection aims to engage philosophers from a variety of different backgrounds and traditions (religious and non-religious) to stimulate dialogue on philosophical method. The volume aims to ask an emerging generation of philosophers - who specialize in philosophy of religion - to write about their personal understanding of the practice, method and future focus of the subject, with the ultimate goal of illustrating why this expanding subject area is important.

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy PDF Author: David J. Chalmers
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393635813
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.

Philosophical Problems

Philosophical Problems PDF Author: Peter Alward
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1554812852
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Peter Alward’s rigorous introductory text functions as a roadmap for students, laying out the key issues, positions, and arguments of academic philosophy. The book covers central topics in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. An introductory chapter presents the foundations of philosophical discourse and offers a primer on the basics of logic. Those argumentative tools are then employed to address classic philosophical issues such as the relationship between body and mind, skepticism, the possibility of free will, and the existence of God. Later chapters engage issues of morality, justice, and liberty, as well as moral questions concerning abortion and the practice of punishment. Throughout, Alward aims for clarity, providing summaries, diagrams, and reflective questions to assist the student reader.

The Armchair Economist

The Armchair Economist PDF Author: Steven E. Landsburg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471112233
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Air bags cause accidents, because well-protected drivers take more risks. This well-documented truth comes as a surprise to most people, but not to economists, who have learned to take seriously the proposition that people respond to incentives. In The Armchair Economist, Steven E. Landsburg shows how the laws of economics reveal themselves in everyday experience and illuminate the entire range of human behavior. Why does popcorn cost so much at the cinema? The 'obvious' answer is that the owner has a monopoly, but if that were the whole story, there would also be a monopoly price to use the toilet. When a sudden frost destroys much of the Florida orange crop and prices skyrocket, journalists point to the 'obvious' exercise of monopoly power. Economists see just the opposite: If growers had monopoly power, they'd have raised prices before the frost. Why don't concert promoters raise ticket prices even when they are sure they will sell out months in advance? Why are some goods sold at auction and others at pre-announced prices? Why do boxes at the football sell out before the standard seats do? Why are bank buildings fancier than supermarkets? Why do corporations confer huge pensions on failed executives? Why don't firms require workers to buy their jobs? Landsburg explains why the obvious answers are wrong, reveals better answers, and illuminates the fundamental laws of human behavior along the way. This is a book of surprises: a guided tour of the familiar, filtered through a decidedly unfamiliar lens. This is economics for the sheer intellectual joy of it.

An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy

An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy PDF Author: John Stuart Mill
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 700

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Book Description


Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy

Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy PDF Author: United States. Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Diplomatic and consular service, American
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description


Art and Curiosity Cabinets of the Late Renaissance

Art and Curiosity Cabinets of the Late Renaissance PDF Author: Julius von Schlosser
Publisher: Getty Research Institute
ISBN: 160606679X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
For the first time, the pioneering book that launched the study of art and curiosity cabinets is available in English. Julius von Schlosser’s Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance (Art and Curiosity Cabinets of the Late Renaissance) is a seminal work in the history of art and collecting. Originally published in German in 1908, it was the first study to interpret sixteenth- and seventeenth-century cabinets of wonder as precursors to the modern museum, situating them within a history of collecting going back to Greco-Roman antiquity. In its comparative approach and broad geographical scope, Schlosser’s book introduced an interdisciplinary and global perspective to the study of art and material culture, laying the foundation for museum studies and the history of collections. Schlosser was an Austrian professor, curator, museum director, and leading figure of the Vienna School of art history whose work has not achieved the prominence of his contemporaries until now. This eloquent and informed translation is preceded by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann’s substantial introduction. Tracing Schlosser’s biography and intellectual formation in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, it contextualizes his work among that of his contemporaries, offering a wealth of insights along the way.