Metaphysical Emergence

Metaphysical Emergence PDF Author: Jessica M. Wilson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192556975
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Both the special sciences and ordinary experience suggest that there are metaphysically emergent entities and features: macroscopic goings-on (including mountains, trees, humans, and sculptures, and their characteristic properties) which depend on, yet are distinct from and distinctively efficacious with respect to, lower-level physical configurations and features. These appearances give rise to two key questions. First, what is metaphysical emergence, more precisely? Second, is there any metaphysical emergence, in principle and moreover in fact? Metaphysical Emergence provides clear and systematic answers to these questions. Wilson argues that there are two, and only two, forms of metaphysical emergence of the sort seemingly at issue in the target cases: 'Weak' emergence, whereby a dependent feature has a proper subset of the powers of the feature upon which it depends, and 'Strong' emergence, whereby a dependent feature has a power not had by the feature upon which it depends. Weak emergence unifies and illuminates seemingly diverse accounts of non-reductive physicalism; Strong emergence does the same as regards seemingly diverse anti-physicalist views positing fundamental novelty at higher levels of compositional complexity. After defending the in-principle viability of each form of emergence, Wilson considers whether complex systems, ordinary objects, consciousness, and free will are actually metaphysically emergent. She argues that Weak emergence is quite common, and that there is Strong emergence in the important case of free will.

Metaphysical Emergence

Metaphysical Emergence PDF Author: Jessica M. Wilson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192556975
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Both the special sciences and ordinary experience suggest that there are metaphysically emergent entities and features: macroscopic goings-on (including mountains, trees, humans, and sculptures, and their characteristic properties) which depend on, yet are distinct from and distinctively efficacious with respect to, lower-level physical configurations and features. These appearances give rise to two key questions. First, what is metaphysical emergence, more precisely? Second, is there any metaphysical emergence, in principle and moreover in fact? Metaphysical Emergence provides clear and systematic answers to these questions. Wilson argues that there are two, and only two, forms of metaphysical emergence of the sort seemingly at issue in the target cases: 'Weak' emergence, whereby a dependent feature has a proper subset of the powers of the feature upon which it depends, and 'Strong' emergence, whereby a dependent feature has a power not had by the feature upon which it depends. Weak emergence unifies and illuminates seemingly diverse accounts of non-reductive physicalism; Strong emergence does the same as regards seemingly diverse anti-physicalist views positing fundamental novelty at higher levels of compositional complexity. After defending the in-principle viability of each form of emergence, Wilson considers whether complex systems, ordinary objects, consciousness, and free will are actually metaphysically emergent. She argues that Weak emergence is quite common, and that there is Strong emergence in the important case of free will.

The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics

The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics PDF Author: Martin Heidegger
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253004403
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
" . . an important addition to the translations of Heidegger's lecture-courses . . Heidegger's voice can be heard with few of the jolting Germanicisms with which so many translations of Heidegger's texts have been burdened. . . ." —International Philosophical Quarterly "The translators of these lectures have succeeded splendidly in giving readers an intimation of the tensely insistent tone of the original German. Heidegger's concern with a linguistic preconsciousness and with our entrancement before the enigma of existence remains intensely contemporary." —Choice "There is much that is new and valuable in this book, and McNeill and Walker's faithful translation makes it very accessible." —Review of Metaphysics "Whoever thought that Heidegger . . . has no surprises left in him had better read this volume. If its rhetoric is 'hard and heavy' its thought is even harder and essentially more daring than Heideggerians ever imagined Heidegger could be." —David Farrell Krell First published in German in 1938 as volume 29/30 of Heidegger's collected works, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics includes an extended treatment of the history of metaphysics and an elaboration of a philosophy of life and nature. Heidegger's concepts of organism, animal behavior, and environment are uniquely developed and defined with intensity. This work, the text of Martin Heidegger's lecture course of 1929/30, is crucial for an understanding of Heidegger's transition from the major work of his early years, Being and Time, to his later preoccupations with language, truth, and history. First published in German in 1983 as volume 29/30 of Heidegger's collected works, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics includes an extended treatment of the history of metaphysics and an elaboration of a philosophy of life and nature. Heidegger's concepts of organism, animal behavior, and environment are uniquely developed and defined with intensity.

The Problems of Philosophy

The Problems of Philosophy PDF Author: Bertrand Russell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0192854232
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
This classic work, first published in 1912, has never been supplanted as an approachable introduction to the theory of philosophical enquiry. It gives Russell's views on such subjects as the distinction between appearance and reality, the existence and nature of matter, idealism, knowledge by acquaintance and by description, induction, truth and falsehood, the distinction between knowledge, error and probable opinion, and the limits and value of philosophical knowledge.

The Persistent Problems of Philosophy

The Persistent Problems of Philosophy PDF Author: Mary Whiton Calkins
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description


The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge

The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge PDF Author: Karl Popper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135626839
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
In a letter of 1932, Karl Popper described Die beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie – The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge – as ‘...a child of crises, above all of ...the crisis of physics.’ Finally available in English, it is a major contribution to the philosophy of science, epistemology and twentieth century philosophy generally. The two fundamental problems of knowledge that lie at the centre of the book are the problem of induction, that although we are able to observe only a limited number of particular events, science nevertheless advances unrestricted universal statements; and the problem of demarcation, which asks for a separating line between empirical science and non-science. Popper seeks to solve these two basic problems with his celebrated theory of falsifiability, arguing that the inferences made in science are not inductive but deductive; science does not start with observations and proceed to generalise them but with problems, which it attacks with bold conjectures. The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge is essential reading for anyone interested in Karl Popper, in the history and philosophy of science, and in the methods and theories of science itself.

Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy

Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy PDF Author: Manuel DeLanda
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1780937997
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
First published 10 years ago, Manuel DeLanda's Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy rapidly established itself as a landmark text in contemporary continental thought. DeLanda here draws on the realist philosophy of Gilles Deleuze to the domain of philosophy of science. As well as contemporary philosophical insights, the book also tackles new developments in geometry, complexity theory and chaos theory to bring new insights to our understanding of a scientific knowledge liberated from traditional ideas of essence.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics PDF Author: Bob Doyle
Publisher: I-Phi Press
ISBN: 9780983580263
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
This book is an introduction to The Metaphysicist, a special sectionof the Information Philosopher website, a work in progress on someclassical questions in philosophy that 20th-century logical positivistsand analytic language philosophers dis-solved as pseudo-problems.The Metaphysicist analyzes the information content in twentyclassic problems in metaphysics - Abstract Entities, Being andBecoming, Causality, Chance, Change, Coinciding Objects,Composition (Parts and Wholes), Constitution, Free Will orDeterminism, God and Immortality, Identity, Individuation,Mind-Body Problem, Modality, Necessity or Contingency,Persistence, Possibility and Actuality, Space and Time, Truth,Universals, Vagueness, and the 20th-century problem of WaveParticleDuality.The Metaphysicist also includes pages on the classic paradoxes andpuzzles used for millennia to wrestle with these metaphysical problemsThe Debtor's Paradox, Dion and Theon, The GrowingArgument, The Infinite Regress, The Problem of the Many,The Ship of Theseus, The Sorites Puzzle, The Statue and theClay, and Tibbles, the Cat.Information philosophy is a new philosophical methodology thatgoes "beyond logic and language" to the underlying informationstructures in the cosmos, in the world, in biological systems, andin the human mind - structures without which logic, language, andscience would be impossible.416 pages, 6 figures, index, bibliography.

Current Controversies in Metaphysics

Current Controversies in Metaphysics PDF Author: Elizabeth Barnes
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1135007713
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
This book showcases a range of views on topics at the forefront of current controversies in the field of metaphysics. It will give readers a varied and alive introduction to the field, and cover such key issues as: modality, fundamentality, composition, the object/property distinction, and indeterminacy. The contributors include some of the most important philosophers currently writing on these issues. The questions and philosophers are: Are there any individuals at the fundamental level? / (1) Shamik Dasgupta (2) Jason Turner Is there an objective difference between essential and accidental properties? / (1) Meghan Sullivan (2) Kris McDaniel and Steve Steward Are there any worldly states of affairs? / (1) Daniel Nolan (2) Joseph Melia Are there any intermediate states of affairs? / (1) Jessica Wilson (2) Elizabeth Barnes and Ross Cameron Do ordinary objects exist? / (1) Trenton Merricks (2) Helen Beebee Editor Elizabeth Barnes guides readers through these controversies (all published here for the first time), with a synthetic introduction and succinct abstracts of each debate.

Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics

Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics PDF Author: Martin Heidegger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description


Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems

Chinese Metaphysics and its Problems PDF Author: Chenyang Li
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107093503
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
The first English-language contributory volume on Chinese metaphysics, covering all major traditions from pre-Qin to the modern period.