Descartes' Dog

Descartes' Dog PDF Author: Dan Whipple
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Descartes' Dog is an intellectual historical mystery novel. The seventeenth century philosopher René Descartes uses his method for uncovering truth to solve the murder of his former lover. In this pursuit, he becomes entangled in the violent politics of the Thirty Years War and the target of a secret and mysterious group, the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross. This portion of the novel is set primarily in 17th century Netherlands. There is a parallel story, set in 2019 Boulder, Colorado, in which a philosophy professor stumbles across Descartes' Memoir, lost for 400 years. Planning to use this spectacular document to advance his career, he is unexpectedly threatened by members of this same brotherhood which had threatened Descartes in the 1600s. This society has survived in secret for 400 years, searching for a book that will give them untold power and wealth. Our professor attempts to defraud them, by pretending to hold the key to the philosophers stone, the Rosicrucians' long-sought key to eternal wealth, vast lifespans and spiritual enlightenment. In the end, the real book with the formula for the philosophers stone is discovered, hiding in plain sight. Violence ensues over its possession. The story becomes a battle between magic and rationality from the early Age of Reason to the modern world.

Descartes' Dog

Descartes' Dog PDF Author: Dan Whipple
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Get Book Here

Book Description
Descartes' Dog is an intellectual historical mystery novel. The seventeenth century philosopher René Descartes uses his method for uncovering truth to solve the murder of his former lover. In this pursuit, he becomes entangled in the violent politics of the Thirty Years War and the target of a secret and mysterious group, the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross. This portion of the novel is set primarily in 17th century Netherlands. There is a parallel story, set in 2019 Boulder, Colorado, in which a philosophy professor stumbles across Descartes' Memoir, lost for 400 years. Planning to use this spectacular document to advance his career, he is unexpectedly threatened by members of this same brotherhood which had threatened Descartes in the 1600s. This society has survived in secret for 400 years, searching for a book that will give them untold power and wealth. Our professor attempts to defraud them, by pretending to hold the key to the philosophers stone, the Rosicrucians' long-sought key to eternal wealth, vast lifespans and spiritual enlightenment. In the end, the real book with the formula for the philosophers stone is discovered, hiding in plain sight. Violence ensues over its possession. The story becomes a battle between magic and rationality from the early Age of Reason to the modern world.

Minds behind the Brain : A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries

Minds behind the Brain : A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries PDF Author: Department of Psychology Washington University Stanley Finger Professor
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198024681
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Attractively illustrated with over a hundred halftones and drawings, this volume presents a series of vibrant profiles that trace the evolution of our knowledge about the brain. Beginning almost 5000 years ago, with the ancient Egyptian study of "the marrow of the skull," Stanley Finger takes us on a fascinating journey from the classical world of Hippocrates, to the time of Descartes and the era of Broca and Ramon y Cajal, to modern researchers such as Sperry. Here is a truly remarkable cast of characters. We meet Galen, a man of titanic ego and abrasive disposition, whose teachings dominated medicine for a thousand years; Vesalius, a contemporary of Copernicus, who pushed our understanding of human anatomy to new heights; Otto Loewi, pioneer in neurotransmitters, who gave the Nazis his Nobel prize money and fled Austria for England; and Rita Levi-Montalcini, discoverer of nerve growth factor, who in war-torn Italy was forced to do her research in her bedroom. For each individual, Finger examines the philosophy, the tools, the books, and the ideas that brought new insights. Finger also looks at broader topics--how dependent are researchers on the work of others? What makes the time ripe for discovery? And what role does chance or serendipity play? And he includes many fascinating background figures as well, from Leonardo da Vinci and Emanuel Swedenborg to Karl August Weinhold--who claimed to have reanimated a dead cat by filling its skull with silver and zinc--and Mary Shelley, whose Frankenstein was inspired by such experiments. Wide ranging in scope, imbued with an infectious spirit of adventure, here are vivid portraits of giants in the field of neuroscience--remarkable individuals who found new ways to think about the machinery of the mind.

The Dog and his Philosopher

The Dog and his Philosopher PDF Author: Martin Balluch
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3744896420
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
The dog "Kuksi" lives together with his human friend Martin Balluch on an equal footing. Especially on their long excursions into the wild, they can only survive if they communicate, cooperate and help each other. Indeed, Kuksi turns out to be someone, not something, who is acting responsibly and with reason. These experiences, recounted at the beginning of the book, are supported by findings in behavioural science and ethology, detailed in the following chapters. It leads the author, a learnt philosopher, to conclude that his dog friend must be considered as a person with free will, over and above any genetic drive and operant conditioning. Usually, the ethics of animal welfare and even animal rights are supported by arguments based on the capacity to suffer. In his book "The Dog and His Philosopher", the author Martin Balluch uses a different approach. He observes that even if animals are considered capable of suffering, as in animal welfare laws, they are not considered as self-aware beings with their own view of the world, wanting to run their lives in their own way. In other words, beings with their own will to autonomy. Using his experiences with his dog friend Kuksi, he claims that dogs, and hence other sufficiently similar animals, must be seen as beings with reason in the sense of Immanuel Kant, a central philosopher of the enlightenment, on whose work the idea of fundamental human rights as a means to protecting human freedom is based. Reformulating Kant with an evolutionary understanding of reason, the author concludes that nonhuman animals are also capable of what Kant considers freedom and autonomy, and hence must be protected by rights too.

Descartes: A Guide for the Perplexed

Descartes: A Guide for the Perplexed PDF Author: Justin Skirry
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441131035
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
René Descartes is arguably the most important seventeenth-century thinker and the father of modern philosophy. Yet his unique method, and its divergence from the method of hisscholastic predecessors and contemporaries, raises complex and often challenging issues. Descartes: A Guide for the Perplexed is a clear and thorough account of descartes' philosophy, his major works and ideas, providing an ideal guide to the important and complex thought of this key philosopher. The book covers the whole range of Descartes' philosophical work, offering a thematic review of his thought, together with detailed examination of the texts commonly encountered by students, including the Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. This book provides a cogent and reliable survey of the philosophical trends and influences apparent in Descartes' thought.

A Companion to Descartes

A Companion to Descartes PDF Author: Janet Broughton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780470765845
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Book Description
A collection of more than 30 specially commissioned essays, this volume surveys the work of the 17th-century philosopher-scientist commonly regarded as the founder of modern philosophy, while integrating unique essays detailing the context and impact of his work. Covers the full range of historical and philosophical perspectives on the work of Descartes Discusses his seminal contributions to our understanding of skepticism, mind-body dualism, self-knowledge, innate ideas, substance, causality, God, and the nature of animals Explores the philosophical significance of his contributions to mathematics and science Concludes with a section on the impact of Descartes's work on subsequent philosophers

The Case for Animal Rights

The Case for Animal Rights PDF Author: Tom Regan
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520243866
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
THE argument for animal rights, a classic since its appearance in 1983, from the moral philosophical point of view.

Minds Behind the Brain

Minds Behind the Brain PDF Author: Stanley Finger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195181821
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Traces the study of the brain from the ancient Egyptians, through the classical world of Hippocrates, the time of Descartes, and the era of Broca, to modern researchers such as Sperry, and examines their sources and tools.

Descartes

Descartes PDF Author: Geneviève Rodis-Lewis
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801486272
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
This major intellectual biography illuminates the personal and historical events of Descartes's life, from his birth and early years in France to his death in Sweden, his burial, and the fate of his remains. Concerned not only with historical events but also with the development of Descartes's personality, Rodis-Lewis speculates on the effect childhood impressions may have had on his philosophy and scientific theories. She considers in detail his friendships, particularly with Isaac Beeckman and Marin Mersenne. Primarily on the basis of his private correspondence, Rodis-Lewis gives a thorough and balanced discussion of his personality. The Descartes she depicts is by turns generous and unforgiving, arrogant and open-minded, loyal in his friendships but eager for the isolation his work required. Drawing on Descartes's writings and his public and private correspondence, she corrects the errors of earlier biographies and clarifies many obscure episodes in the philosopher's life.

Receptions of Descartes

Receptions of Descartes PDF Author: Tad M. Schmaltz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134349122
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Receptions of Descartes is a collection of work by an international group of authors that focuses on the various ways in which Descartes was interpreted, defended and criticized in early modern Europe. The book is divided into five sections, the first four of which focus on Descartes' reception in specific French, Dutch, Italian and English contexts and the last of which concerns the reception of Descartes among female philosophers.

Cogito, Ergo Sum

Cogito, Ergo Sum PDF Author: Richard Watson
Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
ISBN: 9781567923353
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Rene Descartes was a highly influential philosopher, mathematician, and scientist and is regarded as the Father of modern philosophy and mathematics. This is the biography of Descartes, and it describes the life of Descartes, in the flesh and blood, rather than a technical analysis of his philosophical, scientific, and mathematical ideas.