Holes and Other Superficialities

Holes and Other Superficialities PDF Author: Roberto Casati
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026253133X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This fascinating investigation on the borderlines of metaphysics, everyday geometry, and the theory of perception seeks to answer two basic questions: Do holes really exist? And if so, what are they? Holes are among entities that down-to-earth philosophers would like to expel from their ontological inventory. Casati and Varzi argue in favor of their existence and explore the consequences of this unorthodox approach—odd as these might appear. They examine the ontology of holes, their geometry, their part-whole relations, their identity, their causal role, and the ways we perceive them. A Bradford Book

Holes and Other Superficialities

Holes and Other Superficialities PDF Author: Roberto Casati
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026253133X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This fascinating investigation on the borderlines of metaphysics, everyday geometry, and the theory of perception seeks to answer two basic questions: Do holes really exist? And if so, what are they? Holes are among entities that down-to-earth philosophers would like to expel from their ontological inventory. Casati and Varzi argue in favor of their existence and explore the consequences of this unorthodox approach—odd as these might appear. They examine the ontology of holes, their geometry, their part-whole relations, their identity, their causal role, and the ways we perceive them. A Bradford Book

Parts and Places

Parts and Places PDF Author: Roberto Casati
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262032667
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Thinking about space is thinking about spatial things. The table is on the carpet; hence the carpet is under the table. The vase is in the box; hence the box is not in the vase. But what does it mean for an object to be somewhere? How are objects tied to the space they occupy? In this book Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi address some of the fundamental issues in the philosophy of spatial representation. Their starting point is an analysis of the interplay betwen mereology (the study of part/whole relations), topology (the study of spatial continuity and comapctness) and the theory of spatial location proper. This leads to a unified framework for spatial representation understood quite broadly as a theory of the representation of spatial entities. The framework is then tested against some classical metaphysical questions such as: Are parts essential to their whole? Is spatial co-location a sufficient criterion of identity? What (if anything) distinguishes material objects from events and other spatial entities? The concluding chapters deal with applications to topics as diverse as the logical analysis of movement and the semantics of maps.

Insurmountable Simplicities

Insurmountable Simplicities PDF Author: Roberto Casati
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231137230
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
Why do mirrors seem to invert left and right but not up and down? How do we know whether strawberries taste the same for everyone? Where is it written that we must observe the law, and if it is not written, why should we observe it? What if we could swap brains-or the rest of our bodies? Insurmountable Simplicities is filled with captivating and inventive stories, dialogues, and epistolary exchanges that illuminate the many philosophical conundrums of everyday life. Clear, concise, and intellectually engaging, this internationally acclaimed book covers a range of themes, such as personal identity, causality and responsibility, fortune, the nature of things, the paradoxes of time and space, and the interplay between logic and language, and brilliantly demonstrates that the beauty of philosophy resides in its engagement with the simplicities of the world, insurmountable as they might initially appear.

The Visual World of Shadows

The Visual World of Shadows PDF Author: Roberto Casati
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262550849
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
How the perception of shadows, studied by vision scientists and visual artists, reveals the inner workings of the visual system. In The Visual World of Shadows, Roberto Casati and Patrick Cavanagh examine how the perception of shadows, as studied by vision scientists and visual artists, reveals the inner workings of the visual system. Shadows are at once a massive problem for vision—which must distinguish them from objects or material features of objects—and a resource, signaling the presence, location, shape, and size of objects. Casati and Cavanagh draw up an inventory of information retrievable from shadows, showing their amazing variety. They present an overview of the visual system, distinguishing between measurement and inference. They discuss the shadow mission, the work done by the visual brain to parse, and perhaps discard, the information from shadows; shadow ownership, the association of a shadow with the object that casts it; shadow labeling, the visual system's ability to tell shadows from nonshadows; and the shadow concept, our knowledge about shadows as a category. Casati and Cavanagh then apply the theoretical apparatus they have developed for shadows to other phenomena: illumination, reflection, and transparency. Finally, they examine the art of the shadow, paying tribute to artists' exploration of shadow, analyzing a series of artworks (reproduced in color) from a rich and fascinating art historical corpus.

Shadows

Shadows PDF Author: Roberto Casati
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375707115
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
In this original, wide-ranging, and endlessly thought-provoking work of popular nonfiction, a leading science writer uncovers the pervasive presence of shadows in our world. For Plato, shadows were the symbol of our limitations. For Galileo, they knocked the Earth from the center of the cosmos. They are a source of fear and a symbol of ignorance, and they loom large in art and design, mythology and folklore, physics and metaphysics, and architecture and urban planning. From shadows puppets and the psychology of shadows to the role of shadows in astronomy and the influence of shadows on the architectural profiles of our cities, Roberto Casati awakens our fascination in this tour-de-force of investigation and imagination.

The Tiny and the Fragmented

The Tiny and the Fragmented PDF Author: S. Rebecca Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019061482X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Miniature and fragmentary objects are both eye-catching and yet easily dismissed. Tiny scale entices users with visions of Lilliputian worlds. The ambiguity of fragments intrigues us, offering tactile reminders of reality's transience. Yet, the standard scholarly approach to such objects has been to see them as secondary, incomplete things, whose principal purpose was to refer to a complete and often life-size whole. The Tiny and the Fragmented offers a series of fresh perspectives on the familiar concepts of the tiny and the fragmented. Written by a prestigious group of internationally-acclaimed scholars, the volume presents a remarkable diversity of case studies that range from Neolithic Europe to pre-Colombian Honduras to the classical Mediterranean and ancient Near East. Each scholar takes a different approach to issues of miniaturization and fragmentation but is united in considering the little and broken things of the past as objects in their own right. Whether a life-size or whole thing is made in a scaled-down form, deliberately broken as part of its use, or only considered successful in the eyes of ancient users if it shows some signs of wear, it challenges our expectations of representation and wholeness, of what it means for a work of art to be "finished" and "affective." Overall, The Tiny and the Fragmented demands a reconsideration of the social and contextual nature of miniaturization, fragmentation, and incompleteness, making the case that it was because of, rather than in spite of, their small or partial state that these objects were valued parts of the personal and social worlds they inhabited.

Books for Living

Books for Living PDF Author: Will Schwalbe
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804172757
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
From the author of the beloved New York Times best-selling The End of Your Life Book Club, an inspiring and magical exploration of the power of books to shape our lives in an era of constant connectivity. "[A] gift, and one that keeps giving.” —USA Today For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, and to find the answers to life’s questions big and small. In each chapter, he discusses a particular book and how it relates to concerns we all share. These books span centuries and genres—from Stuart Little to The Girl on the Train, from David Copperfield to Wonder, from Giovanni's Room to Rebecca, and from 1984 to Gifts from the Sea. Throughout, Schwalbe tells stories from his life and focuses on the way certain books can help us honor those we've loved and lost, and also figure out how to live each day more fully.

Historical Dictionary of Metaphysics

Historical Dictionary of Metaphysics PDF Author: Gary S. Rosenkrantz
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810859505
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
A dictionary of metaphysical terms with an emphasis on the history of the people and words.

Atlas of Contemporary Public Space

Atlas of Contemporary Public Space PDF Author: Aldo Aymonino
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
This text examines an important selection of the most important and experimental contemporary designs for public spaces throughout the world and offers a critical reflection of the theme of 'unvolumetric architecture' proposed by the designers and theoreticians featured in this book.

Human Perception

Human Perception PDF Author: Marco Bertamini
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351156276
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
It takes little or no effort for us to gather information by means of our senses but it would be a mistake to take this as a sign that perception is simple. It was in the 20th century and after the establishment of psychology as a scientific discipline that the study of perception flourished. This important volume gathers together a selection of articles and essays which represent some of the most interesting discoveries and theories. It gives a flavour of the many different approaches and ideas taken by cognitive psychologists in this fascinating area. Topics covered include: attention, brain systems, object interpolation and completion, object recognition and classification, different types of objects, and information processing and models.