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Author: M. A. Roberts
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197544142
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 281
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Book Description
Melinda A. Roberts introduces the newcomer to population ethics and investigates the key issues in a way that will be of interest to professional philosophers, economists, lawyers, and students in all those areas who seek to understand what a cogent, intuitively plausible theory of population will look like. To that end, Roberts presents five perplexing but telling existence puzzles that already are or shall soon become important parts of the population ethics literature: the Asymmetry Puzzle, the Pareto Puzzle, the Addition Puzzle, the Anonymity Puzzle, and the Better Chance Puzzle. Roberts develops solutions to the puzzles that together form a partial theory of population, a collection of principles grounded in intuition but highly sensitive to the formal demands of consistency and cogency.
Author: M. A. Roberts
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197544142
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 281
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Book Description
Melinda A. Roberts introduces the newcomer to population ethics and investigates the key issues in a way that will be of interest to professional philosophers, economists, lawyers, and students in all those areas who seek to understand what a cogent, intuitively plausible theory of population will look like. To that end, Roberts presents five perplexing but telling existence puzzles that already are or shall soon become important parts of the population ethics literature: the Asymmetry Puzzle, the Pareto Puzzle, the Addition Puzzle, the Anonymity Puzzle, and the Better Chance Puzzle. Roberts develops solutions to the puzzles that together form a partial theory of population, a collection of principles grounded in intuition but highly sensitive to the formal demands of consistency and cogency.
Author: Tyron Goldschmidt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136249222
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 324
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Book Description
This groundbreaking volume investigates the most fundamental question of all: Why is there something rather than nothing? The question is explored from diverse and radical perspectives: religious, naturalistic, platonistic and skeptical. Does science answer the question? Or does theology? Does everything need an explanation? Or can there be brute, inexplicable facts? Could there have been nothing whatsoever? Or is there any being that could not have failed to exist? Is the question meaningful after all? The volume advances cutting-edge debates in metaphysics, philosophy of cosmology and philosophy of religion, and will intrigue and challenge readers interested in any of these subjects.
Author: A.J. Jacobs
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0593136721
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 385
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Book Description
The New York Times bestselling author of The Year of Living Biblically goes on a rollicking journey to understand the enduring power of puzzles: why we love them, what they do to our brains, and how they can improve our world. “Even though I’ve never attempted the New York Times crossword puzzle or solved the Rubik’s Cube, I couldn’t put down The Puzzler.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before Look for the author’s new podcast, The Puzzler, based on this book! What makes puzzles—jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus—so satisfying? Be it the formation of new cerebral pathways, their close link to insight and humor, or their community-building properties, they’re among the fundamental elements that make us human. Convinced that puzzles have made him a better person, A.J. Jacobs—four-time New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism, and nightly crossworder—set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost. In The Puzzler, Jacobs meets the most zealous devotees, enters (sometimes with his family in tow) any puzzle competition that will have him, unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik’s Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw. Chock-full of unforgettable adventures and original examples from around the world—including new work by Greg Pliska, one of America’s top puzzle-makers, and a hidden, super-challenging but solvable puzzle—The Puzzler will open readers’ eyes to the power of flexible thinking and concentration. Whether you’re puzzle obsessed or puzzle hesitant, you’ll walk away with real problem-solving strategies and pathways toward becoming a better thinker and decision maker—for these are certainly puzzling times.
Author: Anthony J. Everett
Publisher: Stanford Univ Center for the Study
ISBN: 9781575862538
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 325
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Book Description
Contributions of important researchers working in empty names, fiction, and the puzzles of non-existence.
Author: Melinda A. Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780197544167
Category : Population
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
"This book introduces newcomers to population ethics, the inquiry into how changes in how many people, and just who, will exist bear on moral law. It also proposes a new way of thinking about the hard cases and questions population ethics is so widely known for. An intuitive first pass at what moral law has to say about choices to bring additional people into existence comes from Narveson. We are "in favour of making people happy." Or so says what this book calls the basic maximizing intuition. But we are "neutral about making happy people." Or so says what this book calls the basic existential intuition (itself a distant and more credible cousin of the person affecting intuition). Ever since questions relating to population variability gained attention in the late 1960s or so, the dominant narrative among population ethicists, including Parfit, has been that Narveson unwittingly contradicted himself-and that as between the two intuitions it's the basic existential intuition that must go. We must, the argument has been accede to a traditional total form of maximizing consequentialism. Leaving us with a (somewhat terrifying) obligation to procreate. Tying our hands in addressing climate change, disapproving of the constitutional rights of contraception and early abortion and giving credence instead to Dobbs v. Jackson and demanding grave sacrifices from vast numbers of people who do or will exist in exchange for the tiniest chance that the human species can multiply indefinitely over the very, very long term. It's a poor story. This book proposes a better story. Hard population cases generate not counterexamples disproving the basic existential intuition but rather a series of puzzles it's our job to solve under the governance of the puzzle-solving rules we all know well: we fit the pieces together without throwing any of them out and within the formal requirements of consistency, cogency and the conceptual principles we seem to have no choice but to accept. Reconciliation, and not refutation, is thus the aim, with each chapter concluding with principles-together, person based consequentialism-that allow us to retain, not the basic maximizing intuition in a careless or unfettered form, but rather in a form that is constrained in very precise ways by the basic existential intuition"--
Author: John Campbell
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198716257
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225
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Book Description
Sensory experience seems to be the basis of our knowledge and conception of mind-independent things. The puzzle is to understand how that can be: even if the things we experience (apples, tables, trees, etc), are mind-independent how does our sensory experience of them enable us to conceive of them as mind-independent? George Berkeley thought that sensory experience can only provide us with the conception of mind-dependent things, things which cannot exist when they aren't being perceived. It's easy to dismiss Berkeley's conclusion but harder to see how to avoid it. In this book, John Campbell and Quassim Cassam propose very different solutions to Berkeley's Puzzle. For Campbell, sensory experience can be the basis of our knowledge of mind-independent things because it is a relation, more primitive than thought, between the perceiver and high-level objects and properties in the mind-independent world. Cassam opposes this 'relationalist' solution to the Puzzle and defends a 'representationalist' solution: sensory experience can give us the conception of mind-independent things because it represents its objects as mind-independent, but does so without presupposing concepts of mind-independent things. This book is written in the form of a debate between two rival approaches to understanding the relationship between concepts and sensory experience. Although Berkeley's Puzzle frames the debate, the questions addressed by Campbell and Cassam aren't just of historical interest. They are among the most fundamental questions in philosophy.
Author: Anany Levitin
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0199740445
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
Algorithmic puzzles are puzzles involving well-defined procedures for solving problems. This book will provide an enjoyable and accessible introduction to algorithmic puzzles that will develop the reader's algorithmic thinking. The first part of this book is a tutorial on algorithm design strategies and analysis techniques. Algorithm design strategies — exhaustive search, backtracking, divide-and-conquer and a few others — are general approaches to designing step-by-step instructions for solving problems. Analysis techniques are methods for investigating such procedures to answer questions about the ultimate result of the procedure or how many steps are executed before the procedure stops. The discussion is an elementary level, with puzzle examples, and requires neither programming nor mathematics beyond a secondary school level. Thus, the tutorial provides a gentle and entertaining introduction to main ideas in high-level algorithmic problem solving. The second and main part of the book contains 150 puzzles, from centuries-old classics to newcomers often asked during job interviews at computing, engineering, and financial companies. The puzzles are divided into three groups by their difficulty levels. The first fifty puzzles in the Easier Puzzles section require only middle school mathematics. The sixty puzzle of average difficulty and forty harder puzzles require just high school mathematics plus a few topics such as binary numbers and simple recurrences, which are reviewed in the tutorial. All the puzzles are provided with hints, detailed solutions, and brief comments. The comments deal with the puzzle origins and design or analysis techniques used in the solution. The book should be of interest to puzzle lovers, students and teachers of algorithm courses, and persons expecting to be given puzzles during job interviews.
Author: Kumar
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781544678771
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 34
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Book Description
In Riddle of Existence, experienced engineering professional Kumar provides a realistic, practical introduction to the world of metaphysics and the search for meaning and purpose in your life. This guide provides succinct insights into philosophical and spiritual concepts. Kumar draws upon his background and experience in engineering to provide a radically different perspective on metaphysics. Instead of merely exploring existence from a philosophical or religious angle, Kumar uses the fact-based disciplines of science and engineering to change the way you think about your role in the universe. Kumar uses the theories and experiments from engineering and applied science disciplines to offer physical explanations for spiritual phenomena. He emphasizes the crucial role energy and vibration play in the universe as a whole. They are also present in every living being and hold the key to understanding our existence. Kumar then connects these scientific theories back to the key pillars of Eastern philosophy including Ayurveda, yoga, and meditation. After completing his guide, you will understand the connections Kumar has discovered and be able to answer the most important questions in life. Scientific advancement and spiritual wisdom will guide you on your path forward!
Author: Marcel Danesi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000185508
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
An Anthropology of Puzzles argues that the human brain is a "puzzling organ" which allows humans to literally solve their own problems of existence through puzzle format. Noting the presence of puzzles everywhere in everyday life, Marcel Danesi looks at puzzles in society since the dawn of history, showing how their presence has guided large sections of human history, from discoveries in mathematics to disquisitions in philosophy. Danesi examines the cognitive processes that are involved in puzzle making and solving, and connects them to the actual physical manifestations of classic puzzles. Building on a concept of puzzles as based on Jungian archetypes, such as the river crossing image, the path metaphor, and the journey, Danesi suggests this could be one way to understand the public fascination with puzzles. As well as drawing on underlying mental archetypes, the act of solving puzzles also provides an outlet to move beyond biological evolution, and Danesi shows that puzzles could be the product of the same basic neural mechanism that produces language and culture. Finally, Danesi explores how understanding puzzles can be a new way of understanding our human culture.
Author: Arthur Nicols
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geology
Languages : en
Pages : 202
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Book Description
