Science and Spiritual Practices

Science and Spiritual Practices PDF Author: Rupert Sheldrake
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1640092641
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"I have personally adopted many of the practices Rupert describes in his book and experienced more love, joy, empathy, gratitude, and equanimity as a result. We are all indebted to Rupert, who has tirelessly brought us deep insights from both science and spirituality.” ―Deepak Chopra The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier. In this pioneering book, Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which many religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage: meditation, gratitude, connecting with nature, relating to plants, rituals, singing and chanting, and pilgrimage and holy places. Sheldrake summarizes the latest scientific research on what happens when we take part in these practices, and suggests ways that readers can explore these fields for themselves. For those who are religious, Science and Spiritual Practices will illuminate the evolutionary origins of their own traditions and give a new appreciation of their power. For the nonreligious, this book will show how the core practices of spirituality are accessible to all. This is a book for anyone who suspects that in the drive toward radical secularism, something valuable has been left behind. Rupert Sheldrake compellingly argues that by opening ourselves to the spiritual dimension, we may find the strength to live more fulfilling lives.

Science and Spiritual Practices

Science and Spiritual Practices PDF Author: Rupert Sheldrake
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1640092641
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
"I have personally adopted many of the practices Rupert describes in his book and experienced more love, joy, empathy, gratitude, and equanimity as a result. We are all indebted to Rupert, who has tirelessly brought us deep insights from both science and spirituality.” ―Deepak Chopra The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier. In this pioneering book, Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which many religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage: meditation, gratitude, connecting with nature, relating to plants, rituals, singing and chanting, and pilgrimage and holy places. Sheldrake summarizes the latest scientific research on what happens when we take part in these practices, and suggests ways that readers can explore these fields for themselves. For those who are religious, Science and Spiritual Practices will illuminate the evolutionary origins of their own traditions and give a new appreciation of their power. For the nonreligious, this book will show how the core practices of spirituality are accessible to all. This is a book for anyone who suspects that in the drive toward radical secularism, something valuable has been left behind. Rupert Sheldrake compellingly argues that by opening ourselves to the spiritual dimension, we may find the strength to live more fulfilling lives.

Ways a World Might Be

Ways a World Might Be PDF Author: Robert Stalnaker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199251487
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Robert Stalnaker draws together in this volume the extent of his work in metaphysics. The central theme is the role of possible worlds in articulating our various metaphysical commitments. The essays presented reflect on the nature of metaphysics, with two of the essays featured being published for the first time.

Doing Philosophy

Doing Philosophy PDF Author: Timothy Williamson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192555464
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
What are philosophers trying to achieve? How can they succeed? Does philosophy make progress? Is it in competition with science, or doing something completely different, or neither? Timothy Williamson tackles some of the key questions surrounding philosophy in new and provocative ways, showing how philosophy begins in common sense curiosity, and develops through our capacity to dispute rationally with each other. Discussing philosophy's ability to clarify our thoughts, he explains why such clarification depends on the development of philosophical theories, and how those theories can be tested by imaginative thought experiments, and compared against each other by standards similar to those used in the natural and social sciences. He also shows how logical rigour can be understood as a way of enhancing the explanatory power of philosophical theories. Drawing on the history of philosophy to provide a track record of philosophical thinking's successes and failures, Williamson overturns widely held dogmas about the distinctive nature of philosophy in comparison to the sciences, demystifies its methods, and considers the future of the discipline. From thought experiments, to deduction, to theories, this little book will cause you to totally rethink what philosophy is.

Metaphysical Animals

Metaphysical Animals PDF Author: Clare Mac Cumhaill
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1984898981
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A vibrant portrait of four college friends—Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Mary Midgley—who formed a new philosophical tradition while Oxford's men were away fighting World War II. The history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In Metaphysical Animals, a pioneering group biography, Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman offer a compelling alternative. In the mid-twentieth century Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch were philosophy students at Oxford when most male undergraduates and many tutors were conscripted away to fight in the Second World War. Together, these young women, all friends, developed a philosophy that could respond to the war’s darkest revelations. Neither the great Enlightenment thinkers of the past, the logical innovators of the early twentieth century, or the new Existentialist philosophy trickling across the Channel, could make sense of this new human reality of limitless depravity and destructive power, the women felt. Their answer was to bring philosophy back to life. We are metaphysical animals, they realized, creatures that can question their very being. Who am I? What is freedom? What is human goodness? The answers we give, they believed, shape what we will become. Written with expertise and flair, Metaphysical Animals is a lively portrait of women who shared ideas, but also apartments, clothes and even lovers. Mac Cumhaill and Wiseman show how from the disorder and despair of the war, four brilliant friends created a way of ethical thinking that is there for us today.

The World a Spiritual System

The World a Spiritual System PDF Author: James H. Snowden
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781977860682
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
The closing paragraph of Rudolph Eucken's great work, The Problem of Life, is an eloquent and timely plea for the study of Metaphysics. "We feel," he says, "with increasing force the need to synthesize life afresh; the need of some unifying, sustaining system of ideas... We must have recourse to Metaphysics." It is certain that our intense and absorbing devotion each man to his own special, and mostly narrow, field has made us near-sighted. Or in the familiar figure "We cannot see the wood for the trees." We hear a good deal of the revival of interest in philosophy, but the evidence of such a revival is not abundant. The fruit of such revival as there may be is not very satisfactory. Much of it is unsatisfactory because it is so evidently partial and partisan; often a mere scrap of metaphysics dragged in to flavor a novel or sustain some scheme of sociology or therapeutics. Many of the most readable contributions to the discussion of philosophic subjects are the work of enthusiastic amateurs who take us on pleasant excursions, but keep near the shore and avoid the high seas of Metaphysics very carefully. Even the best of our philosophers seem to have lost heart and are ready to leave the high seas altogether and settle down in some snug harbor, like Pragmatism, for the rest of their days. Others drift over the line that separates philosophy from poetry, and cruise about in the pleasant waters of verse. Still the situation is not hopeless. Indeed it is the more hopeful because it is so unsatisfactory. The need of more serious, sane and patient study of Metaphysics has become obvious; and the world's need is ever the scholar's opportunity, therefore we hope for better things in the near future. The psychologist and physiologist and moralist and physicist are crying aloud for the metaphysician to put their work together -- to show the plans and specifications of the world. And we have not only hope, but some achievements to encourage us. Such men as James and Paulsen and Eucken are a great deal to have in one generation. And it is with joy as well as hope that we see one of our sanest and boldest thinkers taking his pen in hand in this good cause. He gains our good will, first of all, by writing English that can be read with pleasure. We may not be able to agree with all he says; but we can at least parse it, and that is a good deal. His thinking is straight and consistent. It is not all easy reading of course-it requires more than large type to enable one to read Philosophy-but the reader who brings an earnest mind and fair intelligence to the reading will have no trouble and much pleasure. He has the courage of his convictions; does not evade the difficulties; does not select his ground, but comes out into the open and defends his positions fairly. He is devout and shows a fitting reverence for the sublime themes which he discusses. It may be only our taste, but we dislike the fellow who makes jokes about the solar system or is "smart" in his remarks on the universe.... --The Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 9

Sense and Goodness Without God

Sense and Goodness Without God PDF Author: Richard Carrier
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1452059268
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
If God does not exist, then what does? Is there good and evil, and should we care? How do we know what’s true anyway? And can we make any sense of this universe, or our own lives? Sense and Goodness answers all these questions in lavish detail, without complex jargon. A complete worldview is presented and defended, covering every subject from knowledge to art, from metaphysics to morality, from theology to politics. Topics include free will, the nature of the universe, the meaning of life, and much more, arguing from scientific evidence that there is only a physical, natural world without gods or spirits, but that we can still live a life of love, meaning, and joy.

No Spiritual Investment in the World

No Spiritual Investment in the World PDF Author: Willem Styfhals
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501731025
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Throughout the twentieth century, German writers, philosophers, theologians, and historians turned to Gnosticism to make sense of the modern condition. While some saw this ancient Christian heresy as a way to rethink modernity, most German intellectuals questioned Gnosticism's return in a contemporary setting. In No Spiritual Investment in the World, Willem Styfhals explores the Gnostic worldview's enigmatic place in these discourses on modernity, presenting a comprehensive intellectual history of Gnosticism's role in postwar German thought. Establishing the German-Jewish philosopher Jacob Taubes at the nexus of the debate, Styfhals traces how such figures as Hans Blumenberg, Hans Jonas, Eric Voegelin, Odo Marquard, and Gershom Scholem contended with Gnosticism and its tenets on evil and divine absence as metaphorical detours to address issues of cultural crisis, nihilism, and the legitimacy of the modern world. These concerns, he argues, centered on the difficulty of spiritual engagement in a world from which the divine has withdrawn. Reading Gnosticism against the backdrop of postwar German debates about secularization, political theology, and post-secularism, No Spiritual Investment in the World sheds new light on the historical contours of postwar German philosophy.

The Metaphysical World of Isaac Newton

The Metaphysical World of Isaac Newton PDF Author: John Chambers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620552051
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
Newton’s heretical yet equation-incisive writings on theology, spirituality, alchemy, and prophecy, written in secret alongside his Principia Mathematica • Shows how Newton’s brilliance extended far beyond math and science into alchemy, spirituality, prophecy, and the search for lost continents such as Atlantis • Explains how he was seeking to rediscover the one true religion that existed prior to the Flood of Noah, when science and spirituality were one • Examines Newton’s alternate timeline of prehistory and his study of prophecy through the Book of Revelations, including his prediction of Apocalypse in the year 2060 Isaac Newton (1643-1727) is still regarded by the world as the greatest scientist who ever lived. He invented calculus, discovered the binomial theorem, explained the rainbow, built the first reflecting telescope, and explained the force of gravity. In his famous masterpiece, Principia Mathematica, he described the mechanics of the physical universe with unimagined precision, proving the cosmos was put together according to laws. The perfection of these laws implied a perfect legislator. To Newton, they were proof that God existed. At the same time Newton was writing Principia Mathematica, he was writing a twin volume that he might have called, had it been completed, Principia Theologia--Principles of Theology. This other masterpiece of Newton, kept secret because of the heresies it contained, consists of thousands of essays providing equation-incisive answers to the spiritual questions that have plagued mankind through the ages. Examining Newton’s secret writings, John Chambers shows how his brilliance extended into alchemy, spirituality, the search for lost continents such as Atlantis, and a quest to uncover the “corrupted texts” that were rife in the Bibles of his time. Although he was a devout Christian, Newton’s work on the Bible was focused not on restoring the original Jewish and Christian texts but on rediscovering the one true religion that existed prior to the Flood of Noah, when science and spirituality were one. The author shows that a single thread runs through Newton’s metaphysical explorations: He is attempting to chart the descent of man’s soul from perfection to the present day. The author also examines Newton’s alternate timeline of ancient history and his study of prophecy through the Book of Revelations, including his prediction of an Apocalypse in the year 2060 followed by a radically transformed world. He shows that Newton’s great hope was that these writings would provide a moral compass for humanity as it embarked upon the great enterprise that became our technological world.

The Metaphysical Presuppositions of Being-in-the-World

The Metaphysical Presuppositions of Being-in-the-World PDF Author: Caitlin Smith Gilson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441195955
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description


Aztec Philosophy

Aztec Philosophy PDF Author: James Maffie
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1607322234
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 609

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Book Description
In Aztec Philosophy, James Maffie shows the Aztecs advanced a highly sophisticated and internally coherent systematic philosophy worthy of consideration alongside other philosophies from around the world. Bringing together the fields of comparative world philosophy and Mesoamerican studies, Maffie excavates the distinctly philosophical aspects of Aztec thought. Aztec Philosophy focuses on the ways Aztec metaphysics—the Aztecs’ understanding of the nature, structure and constitution of reality—underpinned Aztec thinking about wisdom, ethics, politics,\ and aesthetics, and served as a backdrop for Aztec religious practices as well as everyday activities such as weaving, farming, and warfare. Aztec metaphysicians conceived reality and cosmos as a grand, ongoing process of weaving—theirs was a world in motion. Drawing upon linguistic, ethnohistorical, archaeological, historical, and contemporary ethnographic evidence, Maffie argues that Aztec metaphysics maintained a processive, transformational, and non-hierarchical view of reality, time, and existence along with a pantheistic theology. Aztec Philosophy will be of great interest to Mesoamericanists, philosophers, religionists, folklorists, and Latin Americanists as well as students of indigenous philosophy, religion, and art of the Americas.