Essays on Actions and Events

Essays on Actions and Events PDF Author: Donald Davidson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199246274
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Donald Davidson has prepared a new edition of his classic 1980 collection of Essays on Actions and Events, including two additional essays. In this seminal investigation of the nature of human action, Davidson argues for an ontology which includes events along with persons and other objects. Certain events are identified and explained as actions when they are viewed as caused and rationalized by reasons; these same events, when described in physical, biological, or physiological terms, may be explained by appeal to natural laws. The mental and the physical thus constitute irreducibly discrete ways of explaining and understanding events and their causal relations. Among the topics discussed are: freedom to act; weakness of the will; the logical form of talk about actions, intentions, and causality; the logic of practical reasoning; Hume's theory of the indirect passions; and the nature and limits of decision theory. The introduction, cross-references, and appendices emphasize the relations between the essays and explain how Davidson's views have developed.

Essays on Actions and Events

Essays on Actions and Events PDF Author: Donald Davidson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199246274
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book Here

Book Description
Donald Davidson has prepared a new edition of his classic 1980 collection of Essays on Actions and Events, including two additional essays. In this seminal investigation of the nature of human action, Davidson argues for an ontology which includes events along with persons and other objects. Certain events are identified and explained as actions when they are viewed as caused and rationalized by reasons; these same events, when described in physical, biological, or physiological terms, may be explained by appeal to natural laws. The mental and the physical thus constitute irreducibly discrete ways of explaining and understanding events and their causal relations. Among the topics discussed are: freedom to act; weakness of the will; the logical form of talk about actions, intentions, and causality; the logic of practical reasoning; Hume's theory of the indirect passions; and the nature and limits of decision theory. The introduction, cross-references, and appendices emphasize the relations between the essays and explain how Davidson's views have developed.

Essays on Anscombe’s Intention

Essays on Anscombe’s Intention PDF Author: Anton Ford
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674060911
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
G. E. M. Anscombe's Intention, firmly established the philosophy of action as a distinctive field of inquiry. Donald Davidson called this 94-page book "the most important treatment of action since Aristotle." But until quite recently, few scholars recognized the magnitude of Anscombe's philosophical achievement. This collection of ten essays elucidates some of the more challenging aspects of Anscombe's work and affirms her reputation as one of our most original philosophers. Born in 1919, Anscombe studied at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, where she later held a research fellowship. In 1941 she married philosopher Peter Geach, with whom she had seven children. A close friend of Wittgenstein, in 1946 she joined Oxford's Somerville College and spent the next twenty-four years there before being appointed to the Chair of Philosophy at Cambridge that Wittgenstein had held. She died in 2001 after her long career as a highly regarded analytic philosopher. This volume brings together fresh interpretations of Intention written by some of today's leading philosophers of action. It will enlighten Anscombe's readers who struggle with concepts they find puzzling or obscure, while providing a bracing corrective to doubts about Intention's significance and the gravity of what is at stake.

Life and Action

Life and Action PDF Author: Michael Thompson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674016705
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Any sound practical philosophy must be clear on practical concepts—concepts, in particular, of life, action, and practice. This clarity is Michael Thompson’s aim in his ambitious work. In Thompson’s view, failure to comprehend the structures of thought and judgment expressed in these concepts has disfigured modern moral philosophy, rendering it incapable of addressing the larger questions that should be its focus. In three investigations, Thompson considers life, action, and practice successively, attempting to exhibit these interrelated concepts as pure categories of thought, and to show how a proper exposition of them must be Aristotelian in character. He contends that the pure character of these categories, and the Aristotelian forms of reflection necessary to grasp them, are systematically obscured by modern theoretical philosophy, which thus blocks the way to the renewal of practical philosophy. His work recovers the possibility, within the tradition of analytic philosophy, of hazarding powerful generalities, and of focusing on the larger issues—like “life”—that have the power to revive philosophy. As an attempt to relocate crucial concepts from moral philosophy and the theory of action into what might be called the metaphysics of life, this original work promises to reconfigure a whole sector of philosophy. It is a work that any student of contemporary philosophy must grapple with.

Central Works of Philosophy

Central Works of Philosophy PDF Author: John Shand
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773530177
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description


Bound

Bound PDF Author: Shaun Nichols
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199291845
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Shaun Nichols offers a naturalistic, psychological account of the origins of the problem of free will. He argues that our belief in indeterminist choice is grounded in faulty inference and therefore unjustified, goes on to suggest that there is no single answer to whether free will exists, and promotes a pragmatic approach to prescriptive issues.

Essays on Contemporary Events

Essays on Contemporary Events PDF Author: C.G. Jung
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135552282
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
Was the leading psychologist of his time a Nazi sympathiser? This was the question asked by many after the Second World War, as they sought to explain Jung's actions and publications during Nazi rule. So great was the controversy that his reputation risked being permanently damaged. Essays on Contemporary Events was the first broadside in his vigorous defence of his beleaguered reputation. This remarkable work is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Jung. It will enable the reader to decide: was Jung wholly innocent of the accusations or had he, like so many others, fallen under the Nazi spell and was now trying to make amends.

Skillful Coping

Skillful Coping PDF Author: Hubert L. Dreyfus
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199654700
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
For fifty years Hubert Dreyfus has done pioneering work which brings phenomenology and existentialism to bear on the philosophical and scientific study of the mind. This is a selection of his most influential essays, developing his critique of the representational model of the mind in analytical philosophy of mind and mainstream cognitive science.

Memories, Thoughts, and Emotions

Memories, Thoughts, and Emotions PDF Author: William Kessen
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1134763212
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
For the past forty years, the ideas and findings of George Mandler -- and George Mandler himself -- have been highly influential throughout the field of experimental psychology. Not only has he helped to advance the study of cognition and emotion in many ways, but he also offered assistance and encouragement to numerous young researchers who may expand on the knowledge acquired thus far. The editors of this festschrift feel that one of the greatest strengths of Mandler's work is the blend of European theorizing and American empiricism. This volume contains contributions from friends and colleagues who have been influenced in one way or another by this accomplished psychologist.

Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective

Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective PDF Author: Donald Davidson
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191519227
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective is the long-awaited third volume of philosophical writings by Donald Davidson, whose influence on philosophy since the 1960s has been deep and broad. His first two collections, published by OUP in the early 1980s, are recognized as contemporary classics. Now Davidson presents a selection of his work on knowledge, mind, and language from the 1980s and the 1990s. We all have knowledge of our own minds, knowledge of the contents of other minds, and knowledge of the shared environment. Davidson examines the nature and status of each of these three sorts of knowledge, and the connections and differences among them. Along the way he has illuminating things to say about truth, human rationality, and the relations among language, thought, and the world. This new volume offers a rich and rewarding feast for anyone interested in philosophy today, and is essential reading for anyone working on its central topics.

Promises and Agreements

Promises and Agreements PDF Author: Hanoch Sheinman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199703272
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Promises and agreements are everywhere; we make, receive, keep, and break them on a daily basis. The quest to understand these social practices is integral to understanding ourselves as social creatures. The study of promises and agreements is enjoying a renaissance in many areas of social philosophy, including philosophy of language, action theory, normative ethics, value theory, and legal philosophy. This volume is the first collection of philosophical papers on promises and agreements, bringing together sixteen original self-standing contributions to the philosophical literature. The contributors highlight some of the more interesting aspects of the ubiquitous social phenomena of promises and agreements from different philosophical perspectives.