Eurasian Philosophy and Quantum Metaphysics (Theology Reconsidered) By: Juan Valdez The science of our modern age is able to neither address nor solve our current global problems. Author Juan Valdez believes we should study humanity’s ancient wisdom and philosophy texts to develop a new intellectual paradigm that can respond and support our current needs. Eurasian Philosophy and Quantum Metaphysics (Theology Reconsidered) is an in-depth study of the origins and meanings of ancient philosophies before they were fractured into mythology and religions and attacked by modern science. Beginning with creation mythology in Eurasia through the development of philosophical thought, to the Scientific Revolution to our own modern Quantum Era, the progression – and abandonment – of ancient wisdom is carefully studied. Valdez reviews and analyzes the ancient texts themselves to understand what they truly say and not what later historians have said about them. The Indo-Aryan Vedas, the Torah, Rene Descartes’ Discourse on the Method and Principles of Philosophy, Neils Bohr’s Atomic Theory, and more, are all respectfully and critically assessed. As enlightened as we may consider ourselves, Valdez calls attention to how limited modern thought has become. By reviewing past wisdom, we can not only rediscover the roots of modern thought but place Wisdom itself at the top of intellectual pursuits. Eurasian Philosophy and Quantum Metaphysics (Theology Reconsidered) is a rich and nuanced study on how humanity has thought of itself.
Metaphysics Reconsidered: A Gnostic Reading of Kant By: Juan Valdez This work sits at the tail end of a progression of studies into theology, mysticism, and philosophy which reaches its apex here philosophically. It builds off of the understanding of the (shared) foundations of theological, mystical, and philosophical knowledge from antiquity that we explore in Theology Reconsidered and Homo Mysticus that have supported the development of advanced societies throughout human history, and conjoins this knowledge with more modern conceptions of the world as reflected in scientific disciplines such as physics, psychology, and biology to establish a new system of metaphysics, a postmodern system of metaphysics, which accounts for philosophical skepticism as well as physical materialism and has both a psychological as well as physical element to it—the world as it appears and the world as itis in Kantian terms. In creating this model, we first illustrate the deficiencies of the prevailing metaphysical paradigm, one that reflects a deep-seated belief in the ontological supremacy of “objective reality,” and find the source of these deficiencies, point them out, and then make some adjustments to the underlying system (Kantian metaphysics primarily) such that its misguided conclusions are both brought to light and at the same time corrected. In so doing, we in effect root our system of metaphysics, the Metaphysics of Awareness, directly into the Western philosophical tradition.
homo mysticus: ex machina By: Juan Valdez Homo mysticus is a book about the science of mysticism, seen through the lens of ancient cosmogony and sacred geometry. This book connects the spiritual and the otherworldly to the practical and tangible in a refreshingly down to earth way. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the subjects of both mysticism and science.
How analyzing scientific practices can alter debates on the relationship between science and reality Numerous scholarly works focus solely on scientific metaphysics or biological practice, but few attempt to bridge the two subjects. This volume, the latest in the Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science series, explores what a scientific metaphysics grounded in biological practices could look like and how it might impact the way we investigate the world around us. From Biological Practice to Scientific Metaphysics examines how to reconcile the methods of biological practice with the methods of metaphysical cosmology, notably regarding the origins of life. The contributors take up a wide range of traditional metaphysics and philosophy of science topics, including natural kinds, medicine, ecology, genetics, scientific pluralism, reductionism, operationalism, mechanisms, the nature of information, and more. Many of the chapters represent the first philosophical treatments of significant biological practices. From causality and complexity to niche constructions and inference, the contributors review and discuss long-held objections to metaphysics by natural scientists. They illuminate how, in order to learn about the world as it truly is, we must look not only at what scientists say but also what they do: for ontology cannot be read directly from scientific claims. Contributors: Richard Creath, Arizona State U; Marc Ereshefsky, U of Calgary; Marie I. Kaiser, Bielefeld U; Thomas A. C. Reydon, Leibniz U Hannover and Michigan State U; Lauren N. Ross, U of California, Irvine; Rose Trappes, U of Exeter; Marcel Weber, U of Geneva; William C. Wimsatt, U of Chicago. Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
The content in this work is fiction, fiction in the sense that the main character through which the eyes of this metaphysical and philosophical journey is viewed, Charlie, is not a real character, nor are his counterparts and foils through which he explores various topics such as love, the meaning of existence or the origins of the cosmos and how our understanding of these abstract ideas have evolved since the dawn of civilization. But like any work of fiction, the characters do have some basis in real experience, from which of course nothing can be created. The intent of the work is to explore the foundations and evolution of knowledge and the boundaries between reason and faith, boundaries which from the authors perspective are not quite as clear as some might have us believe. And the point of going through the exercise, the purpose as it were, is not only for the author to come to a better understanding of how all our modern branches of science hang together, how they have come to be given their socio-political and historical context, but also for others to share in his journey and perhaps learn something along the way. Since the birth of language and thought even, going back thousands of years and even prior to the dawn of civilization itself, mankind has attempted to answer two fundamental questions, questions that have spurred countless creative forces and branches of thought over the centuries; namely who we are and from whence we came. The answers to these questions, no matter what race, religion or creed the seeker might be, or what philosophy or religion they might adhere to, are inextricably linked to each other. This journey of trying to understand our place in the world, and the origins of the universe itself, is an ageless quest that in many respects distinguishes mankind from the rest of the creatures on the planet. Furthermore, this very same quest to answer the same questions fuels not only scientific development but also is the basis for theology and religion, both approaching the same set of questions with a different set of tools and with a different mindset but both trying to answer the same set of basic questions as to who we are and how we got here. From the authors perspective, in order to answer these questions effectively in the Information Age, we should have at least some understanding of the history of our answers to these questions as they have evolved over time. For we all build our collective knowledge on those that have come before us, whether we recognize this or not. And in turn, that in building this bridge, a common metaphor used throughout the work, we must leverage the tool of metaphysics, a term originally coined by Aristotle but in the context of this work implies a level of abstraction that sits above physics as we understand it in todays world but also provides a conceptual underpinning to all of the branches of knowledge that collectively make up our understanding of the world and out place in it. In doing so, it is the authors hope that we can not only come to a more complete and fuller understanding of the answers to these basic human questions that have plagued mankind since time immemorial, but also at the same time perhaps develop a deeper understanding of the problems of life in the Information Age and how we might best approach them, or cope with them, in way that not only benefits ourselves as individuals but to society as a whole, to which our individual well-being depends upon whether or not we recognize it or not.
This book is a collection of essays whose topics center around relations between analytic metaphysics and modern physical theories. The contributions to the volume cover a broad spectrum of issues, ranging from metaphysical implications of selected physical theories (quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, general relativity, string theory etc.), to specific problems in scientifically-oriented analytic metaphysics, such as the problem of emergence and reduction, the part-whole relation, and the question of objecthood, properties and individuality on the fundamental level of reality. The authors of the contributions are philosophers of science, physicists and metaphysicians of international renown, and their work represents the cutting edge in modern metaphysics of physical sciences. Contributors are: Tomasz Bigaj, Jessica Bloom, Nazim Bouatta, Jeremy Butterfield, Adam Caulton, Dennis Dieks, Mauro Dorato, Michael Esfeld, Steven French, Andreas Hüttemann, Marek Kuś, Douglas Kutach, Vincent Lam, Olimpia Lombardi, Kerry McKenzie, Thomas Møller-Nielsen, Matteo Morganti, Ioan Muntean, Dean Rickles, Antonio Vassallo, Jessica Wilson, Christian Wüthrich
One of the most important and controversial themes in the contemporary dialogue among scientists and Christian theologians is the issue of "divine action" in the world. This volume brings together contributions from leading scholars on this topic, which emerged out of the Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action project, co-sponsored by the Vatican Observatory and the Center for Theology and Natural Science. This multi-year collaboration involved over 50 authors meeting at five international conferences. The essays collected here demonstrate the pervasive role of philosophy in this dialogue.
This volume includes an appendix, containing entries from "Albert the Great" to "Xenophon," a thematic outline of contents, bibliographies, and an index to the reference set.
Jacob Böhme (1575–1624) is famous as a shoemaker and spiritual author. His works and thought are frequently studied as a product of his mystical illumination. Jacob Böhme and His World adopts a different perspective. It seeks to demystify Böhme by focusing on aspects of his immediate cultural and social context and the intellectual currents of his time, including Böhme’s writing as literature, the social conditions in Görlitz, Böhme’s correspondence networks, a contemporary “crisis of piety,” Paracelsian and kabbalistic currents, astrology, astronomy and alchemy, and his relationship to other dissenting authors. Relevant facets of reception include Böhme’s philosophical standing, his contributions to pre-Pietism, and early English translations of his works.
Metaphysics or Ontology? treats the evolution of the object of metaphysics from being, to the concept of being, to, finally, the object (thought). Possible being must be non-contradictory, but an object of thought includes anything a human being can think, including contradictions and nothingness. When the concept of being, or object of thought, replaces existence as the object of metaphysics, it becomes something other than metaphysics—ontology, or something beyond ontology. However, ontology cannot examine existence because it only investigates concepts and possibility. Only classical metaphysics investigates reality qua reality. This book masterfully treats the history of this controversy and many other important metaphysical questions raised over the centuries
