From Metaphysics to Ethics

From Metaphysics to Ethics PDF Author: Frank Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198236182
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Frank Jackson champions the cause of conceptual analysis as central to philosophical inquiry. In recent years conceptual analysis has been undervalued and, Jackson suggests, widely misunderstood; he argues that there is nothing especially mysterious about it and a whole range of important questions cannot be productively addressed without it. He anchors his argument in discussion of specific philosophical issues, starting with the metaphysical doctrine of physicalism and movingon, via free will, meaning, personal identity, motion and change, to the philosophy of colour and to ethics. The significance of different kinds of supervenience theses, Kripke and Putnam's work in the philosophy of modality and language, and the role of intuitions about possible cases receivedetailed attention. Jackson concludes with a defence of a version of analytical descriptivism in ethics. In this way the book not only offers a methodological programme for philosophy, but also throws fascinating new light on some much-debated problems and their interrelations.puffs which may be quoted (please do not edit without consulting OUP editor):'This is an outstanding book. It covers a vast amount of philosophy in a very short space, advances a number of original and striking positions, and manages to be both clear and concise in its expositions of other views and forceful in its criticisms of them. The book offers something new for those interested in the various individual problems it discusses--conceptual analysis, the mind-body relation, secondary qualities, modality, and ethical realism. But unifying these individualdiscussions is an ambitious structure which amounts to an outline of a complete metaphysical system, and an outline of an epistemology for this metaphysics. It is hard to think of a central area of analytic philosophy which will not be touched by Jackson's conclusions.' Tim Crane, Reader in Philosophy,University College London'The writing is clear, straightforward, and down to earth--the usual virtues one expects from Jackson . . . what he has to say is innovative and valuable . . . the book deals with a large number of apparently diverse philosophical issues, but it is also an elegantly unified work. What gives it unity is the metaphilosophical framework that Jackson works out with great care and persuasiveness. This is the first serious and sustained work on the methodology of metaphysics in recent memory.What he says about the role of conceptual analysis in metaphysics is an important and timely contribution. . . . It is refreshing and heartening to see a first-class analytic philosopher doing some serious metaphilosophical work . . . I think that the book will be greeted as an important event inphilosophical publishing.' Jaegwon Kim, Professor of Philosophy, Brown University

Analysis and Metaphysics

Analysis and Metaphysics PDF Author: P. F. Strawson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198751182
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Professor Strewson draws on his many years of teaching at Oxford University, during which he refined and developed what he regards as the most productive route to understanding the fundamental structure of human thinking.

Metaphysical Analysis

Metaphysical Analysis PDF Author: John W. Yolton
Publisher: Toronto U. of Toronto P
ISBN: 9780608100180
Category : Dualism
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description


The Nature of Life

The Nature of Life PDF Author: Florence Webster
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Examines the nature of life from physical life and nutrition, to behavior and sentient life, to conscious life and mind, to values and spirituality.

Metaphysical Analysis

Metaphysical Analysis PDF Author: John W. Yolton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Analysis (Philosophy)
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description


Meaning Diminished

Meaning Diminished PDF Author: Kenneth Allen Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198803443
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Meaning Diminished examines the complex relationship between semantic analysis and metaphysical inquiry. Kenneth A. Taylor argues that we should expect linguistic and conceptual analysis of natural language to yield far less metaphysical insight into what there is - and the nature of what there is - than many philosophers have imagined. Taking a strong stand against the so-called linguistic turn in philosophy, Taylor contends that philosophers as diverse as Kant, with his Transcendental Idealism, Frege, with his aspirational Platonism, Carnap with his distinction between internal and external questions, and Strawson, with his descriptive metaphysics, have placed too much confidence in the ability of linguistic and conceptual analysis to achieve deep insight into matters of ultimate metaphysics. He urges philosophers who seek such insight to turn away from the interrogation of language and concepts and back to the more direct interrogation of reality itself. In doing so, he maps out the way forward toward a metaphysically modest semantics, in which semantics carries less weighty metaphysical burdens, and toward a revisionary and naturalistic metaphysics, untethered to the a priori analysis of ordinary language.

From Metaphysics to Ethics

From Metaphysics to Ethics PDF Author: Frank Jackson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198236182
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Frank Jackson champions the cause of conceptual analysis as central to philosophical inquiry. In recent years conceptual analysis has been undervalued and, Jackson suggests, widely misunderstood; he argues that there is nothing especially mysterious about it and a whole range of important questions cannot be productively addressed without it. He anchors his argument in discussion of specific philosophical issues, starting with the metaphysical doctrine of physicalism and movingon, via free will, meaning, personal identity, motion and change, to the philosophy of colour and to ethics. The significance of different kinds of supervenience theses, Kripke and Putnam's work in the philosophy of modality and language, and the role of intuitions about possible cases receivedetailed attention. Jackson concludes with a defence of a version of analytical descriptivism in ethics. In this way the book not only offers a methodological programme for philosophy, but also throws fascinating new light on some much-debated problems and their interrelations.puffs which may be quoted (please do not edit without consulting OUP editor):'This is an outstanding book. It covers a vast amount of philosophy in a very short space, advances a number of original and striking positions, and manages to be both clear and concise in its expositions of other views and forceful in its criticisms of them. The book offers something new for those interested in the various individual problems it discusses--conceptual analysis, the mind-body relation, secondary qualities, modality, and ethical realism. But unifying these individualdiscussions is an ambitious structure which amounts to an outline of a complete metaphysical system, and an outline of an epistemology for this metaphysics. It is hard to think of a central area of analytic philosophy which will not be touched by Jackson's conclusions.' Tim Crane, Reader in Philosophy,University College London'The writing is clear, straightforward, and down to earth--the usual virtues one expects from Jackson . . . what he has to say is innovative and valuable . . . the book deals with a large number of apparently diverse philosophical issues, but it is also an elegantly unified work. What gives it unity is the metaphilosophical framework that Jackson works out with great care and persuasiveness. This is the first serious and sustained work on the methodology of metaphysics in recent memory.What he says about the role of conceptual analysis in metaphysics is an important and timely contribution. . . . It is refreshing and heartening to see a first-class analytic philosopher doing some serious metaphilosophical work . . . I think that the book will be greeted as an important event inphilosophical publishing.' Jaegwon Kim, Professor of Philosophy, Brown University

Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671

Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 PDF Author: Robert Pasnau
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191501794
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 811

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Book Description
Robert Pasnau traces the developments of metaphysical thinking through four rich but for the most part neglected centuries of philosophy, running from the thirteenth century through to the seventeenth. At no period in the history of philosophy, other than perhaps our own, have metaphysical problems received the sort of sustained attention they received during the later Middle Ages, and never has a whole philosophical tradition come crashing down as quickly and completely as did scholastic philosophy in the seventeenth century. The thirty chapters work through various fundamental metaphysical issues, sometimes focusing more on scholastic thought, sometimes on the seventeenth century. Pasnau begins with the first challenges to the classical scholasticism of Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, runs through prominent figures like John Duns Scotus and William Ockham, and ends in the seventeenth century, with the end of the first stage of developments in post-scholastic philosophy: on the continent, with Descartes and Gassendi, and in England, with Boyle and Locke.

Outlines of Metaphysic

Outlines of Metaphysic PDF Author: Rudolf Hermann Lotze
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 99

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Book Description
Hermann Lotze was a german philosopher and logician who lived and worked in the latter part of the nineteenth century. He contributed a great deal to the philosophy of science and was well-versed not only in philosophy but also in medicine and biology. His book is the text of several of his lectures where he explained the ideas he had about the rules governing the universe.

Reflexions on the Metaphysical Principles of the Infinitesimal Analysis

Reflexions on the Metaphysical Principles of the Infinitesimal Analysis PDF Author: Lazare Carnot
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Calculus
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description


Divine Omniscience and Human Free Will

Divine Omniscience and Human Free Will PDF Author: Ciro De Florio
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303031300X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This book deals with an old conundrum: if God knows what we will choose tomorrow, how can we be free to choose otherwise? If all our choices are already written, is our freedom simply an illusion? This book provides a precise analysis of this dilemma using the tools of modern metaphysics and logic of time. With a focus on three intertwined concepts - God’s nature, the formal structure of time, and the metaphysics time, including the relationship between temporal entities and a timeless God - the chapters analyse various solutions to the problem of foreknowledge and freedom, revealing the advantages and drawbacks of each. Building on this analysis, the authors advance constructive solutions, showing under what conditions an entity can be omniscient in the presence of free agents, and whether an eternal entity can know the tensed futures of the world. The metaphysics of time, its topology and the semantics of future tensed sentences are shown to be invaluable topics in dealing with this issue. Combining investigations into the metaphysics of time with the discipline of temporal logic this monograph brings about important advancements in the philosophical understanding of an ancient and fascinating problem. The answer, if any, is hidden in the folds of time, in the elusive nature of this feature of reality and in the infinite branching of our lives.