What Tends to Be

What Tends to Be PDF Author: Rani Lill Anjum
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351009788
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
People tend to enjoy listening to music or watching television, sleeping at night and celebrating birthdays. Plants tend to grow and thrive in sunlight and mild temperatures. We also know that tendencies are not perfectly regular and that there are patterns in the natural world, which are reliable to a degree, but not absolute. What should we make of a world where things tend to be one way but could be another? Is there a position between necessity and possibility? If there is, what are the implications for science, knowledge and ethics? This book explores these questions and is the first full-length treatment of the philosophy of tendencies. Anjum and Mumford argue that although the philosophical language of tendencies has been around since Aristotle, there has not been any serious commitment to the irreducible modality that they involve. They also argue that the acceptance of an irreducible and sui generis tendential modality ought to be the fundamental commitment of any genuine realism about dispositions or powers. It is the dispositional modality that makes dispositions authentically disposition-like. Armed with this theory the authors apply it to a variety of key philosophical topics such as chance, causation, epistemology and free will.

What Tends to Be

What Tends to Be PDF Author: Rani Lill Anjum
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351009788
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
People tend to enjoy listening to music or watching television, sleeping at night and celebrating birthdays. Plants tend to grow and thrive in sunlight and mild temperatures. We also know that tendencies are not perfectly regular and that there are patterns in the natural world, which are reliable to a degree, but not absolute. What should we make of a world where things tend to be one way but could be another? Is there a position between necessity and possibility? If there is, what are the implications for science, knowledge and ethics? This book explores these questions and is the first full-length treatment of the philosophy of tendencies. Anjum and Mumford argue that although the philosophical language of tendencies has been around since Aristotle, there has not been any serious commitment to the irreducible modality that they involve. They also argue that the acceptance of an irreducible and sui generis tendential modality ought to be the fundamental commitment of any genuine realism about dispositions or powers. It is the dispositional modality that makes dispositions authentically disposition-like. Armed with this theory the authors apply it to a variety of key philosophical topics such as chance, causation, epistemology and free will.

Being Inclined

Being Inclined PDF Author: Mark Sinclair
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192583026
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Being Inclined is the first book-length study in English of the work of Félix Ravaisson, France's most influential philosopher in the second half of the nineteenth century. Mark Sinclair shows how Ravaisson, in his great work Of Habit (1838), understands habit as tendency and inclination in a way that provides the basis for a philosophy of nature and a general metaphysics. In examining Ravaisson's ideas against the background of the history of philosophy, and in the light of later developments in French thought, Sinclair shows how Ravaisson gives an original account of the nature of habit as inclination, within a metaphysical framework quite different to those of his predecessors in the philosophical tradition. Being Inclined sheds new light on the history of modern French philosophy and argues for the importance of the neglected nineteenth-century French spiritualist tradition. It also shows that Ravaisson's philosophy of inclination, of being-inclined, is of great import for contemporary philosophy, and particularly for the contemporary metaphysics of powers given that ideas about tendency have recently come to prominence in discussions concerning dispositions, laws, and the nature of causation. Being Inclined therefore offers a detailed and faithful contextualist study of Ravaisson's masterpiece, demonstrating its continued importance for contemporary thought.

All Matter Tends to Rotation, Or The Ultimate Source of All Motion

All Matter Tends to Rotation, Or The Ultimate Source of All Motion PDF Author: Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electrostatics
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description


An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries. 2. Ed

An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries. 2. Ed PDF Author: Colin Maclaurin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries

An Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries PDF Author: Colin MacLaurin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mechanics
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description


Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 123, No. 1, 1979)

Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 123, No. 1, 1979) PDF Author:
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
ISBN: 9781422370803
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description


Law, Morality and Rights

Law, Morality and Rights PDF Author: M.A. Stewart
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401720495
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
The Royal Institute of Philosophy has been sponsoring conferences in alternate years since 1969. These have from the start been intended to be of interest to persons who are not philosophers by profession. They have mainly focused on interdisciplinary areas such as the philosophies of psychology, education and the social sciences. The volumes arising from these conferences have in cluded discussions between philosophers and distinguished prac titioners of other disciplines relevant to the chosen topic. Beginning with the 1979 conference on 'Law, Morality and Rights' and the 1981 conference on 'Space, Time and Causality' these volumes are now constituted as a series. It is hoped that this series will contribute to advancing philosophical understanding at the frontiers of philosophy and areas of interest to non-philos ophers. It is hoped that it will do so by writing which reduces technicalities as much as the subject-matter permits. In this way the series is intended to demonstrate that philosophy can be clear and worthwhile in itself and at the same time relevant to the interests of lay people.

The Christian Spectator

The Christian Spectator PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Theology
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description


Intellectuals

Intellectuals PDF Author: Bruce Robbins
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816618316
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
A valuable counter to the Reagan-Bush-Bennett-Bloom backlash, these essays (by many of the usual left suspects--Aronowitz, Said, Ehrenreich, et al.) analyze and evaluate the situatedness of intellectuals with respect to the media, government bureaucracy, the university, and the Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Triangle of Representation

The Triangle of Representation PDF Author: Christopher Prendergast
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231506090
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Moving deftly among literary and visual arts, as well as the modern critical canon, Christopher Prendergast's book explores the meaning and value of representation as both a philosophical challenge (What does it mean to create an image that "stands for" something absent?) and a political issue (Who has the right to represent whom?). The Triangle of Representation raises a range of theoretical, historical, and aesthetic questions, and offers subtle readings of such cultural critics as Raymond Williams, Paul de Man, Edward Said, Walter Benjamin, and Hélène Cixous, in addition to penetrating investigations of visual artists like Gros, Ingres, and Matisse and significant insights into Proust and the onus of translating him. Above all, Prendergast's work is a striking display of how a firm grounding in theory is essential for the exploration of art and literature.