Artistic Truth

Artistic Truth

Author: Lambert Zuidervaart

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-10-18

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1139456318

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It is unfashionable to talk about artistic truth. Yet the issues traditionally addressed under that term have not disappeared. Indeed, questions concerning the role of the artist in society, the relationship between art and knowledge and the validity of cultural interpretation have intensified. Lambert Zuidervaart challenges intellectual fashions. He proposes a new critical hermeneutics of artistic truth that engages with both analytic and continental philosophies and illuminates the contemporary cultural scene. People turn to the arts as a way of finding orientation in their lives, communities and institutions. But philosophers, hamstrung by their own theories of truth, have been unsuccessful in accounting for this common feature in our lives. This book portrays artistic truth as a process of imaginative disclosure in which expectations of authenticity, significance and integrity prevail. Understood in this way, truth becomes central to the aesthetic and social value of the arts.


Inroads

Inroads

Author: Murray Miles

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2003-12-15

Total Pages: 690

ISBN-13: 1442655887

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This unique introduction to philosophy is designed as a companion volume to a number of classic philosophical texts widely used in first- and upper-year philosophy courses. While remaining clear and readable, Inroads provides detailed analyses of fundamental issues in metaphysics and morals: the existence of God, the meaning of death, and the elements and definitions of the 'good life' for humankind. Combining a historical with a systematic approach, Murray Miles's work straddles the customary divisions between ancient and modern, and Anglo-American and continental European philosophy. In each of its five main parts – in turn, focusing on Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Hume, and Sartre – Inroads discusses, from a philosophical rather than a religious or scientific perspective, those questions that make up the common inheritance of academic philosophy and ethico-religious thought. Other features include a detailed glossary of philosophical terms, suggestions for further reading, and questions for reflection and review. Inroads is a useful text for first-year undergraduate courses or, equally, a sound resource for the general reader looking for a good grounding in philosophy and its history.


Reconstructing Reason and Representation

Reconstructing Reason and Representation

Author: Murray Clarke

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2004-06-11

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9780262262194

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A study of the philosophical implications of evolutionary psychology, suggesting that knowledge is a set of natural kinds housed in the modules of a massively modular mind. In Reconstructing Reason and Representation, Murray Clarke offers a detailed study of the philosophical implications of evolutionary psychology. In doing so, he offers new solutions to key problems in epistemology and philosophy of mind, including misrepresentation and rationality. He proposes a naturalistic approach to reason and representation that is informed by evolutionary psychology, and, expanding on the massive modularity thesis advanced in work by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, argues for a modular, adapticist account of misrepresentation and knowledge. Just as the reliability of representation can be defended on the basis of an account of the proper function of cognitive modularity, misrepresentation can be explained through an appeal to the "gap theory," by noting the divergence between the proper and actual domains of cognitive modules in a massively modular mind. Clarke argues for an externalist, modular reliabilism by suggesting that evolution has equipped us with generally reliable inferential systems even if they do not always produce true beliefs. He argues that reliable deductive and inductive inference occurs only when cognitive modules deal with actual domains that are sufficiently similar to their proper domains. This psychologically informed, naturalized adapticism leads to the suggestion that knowledge is a set of natural kinds housed in the modules of a massively modular mind. Typically, the proper function of these cognitive modules is to provide us with truths that enable us to satisfy our basic biological needs. Beyond reasoning modules, other cognitive modules discussed include the ability to orient ourselves in space, and our abilities with language, numbers, object reasoning, and social understanding. Clarke also defends Cosmides and Tooby's massive modularity hypothesis against such critics as Jerry Fodor by demonstrating that these critics consistently misrepresent Cosmides and Tooby's position.


Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy

Author: Béla Szabados

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2004-05-10

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1551115573

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Shortlisted for 2004 Saskatchewan Book Award: Best Scholarly Writing What is a hypocrite? What role does hypocrisy play in our lives? Why is it thought to be such an ugly vice? Is it ever acceptable? What do we lose in our indifference to it? Hypocrisy: Ethical Investigations seeks to illuminate the concept of hypocrisy by exploring its multiple roles in our moral and political lives and struggles. The authors provide a critical examination of a wide range of perspectives on the nature, varieties, and significance of hypocrisy, arguing that it is a key concept in the investigation of the field of morality in general, including its moralizing excesses.


A History of Science in Society

A History of Science in Society

Author: Lesley Cormack

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2012-03-12

Total Pages: 842

ISBN-13: 1442604484

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A History of Science in Society is a concise overview that introduces complex ideas in a non-technical fashion. Andrew Ede and Lesley B. Cormack trace the history of science through its continually changing place in society and explore the link between the pursuit of knowledge and the desire to make that knowledge useful. In this edition, the authors examine the robust intellectual exchange between East and West and provide new discussions of two women in science: Maria Merian and Maria Winkelmann. A chapter on the relationship between science and war has been added as well as a section on climate change. The further readings section has been updated to reflect recent contributions to the field. Other new features include timelines at the end of each chapter, 70 upgraded illustrations, and new maps of Renaissance Europe, Captain James Cook's voyages, the 2nd voyage of the Beagle, and the main war front during World War I.


The Dimensions of Ethics

The Dimensions of Ethics

Author: Wilfrid J. Waluchow

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2003-03-27

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1460400844

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The Dimensions of Ethics offers a concise but wide-ranging introduction to moral philosophy. In clear and engaging fashion, the author first examines the scope of ethical theory, and explores central metaethical questions such as the issue of relativism, and the relationship between morality and religion. He then turns to an exploration of five theoretical approaches (utilitarianism, the deontological approach of Kant, the ethical pluralism of Ross, virtue ethics, and feminist ethics), in each case providing a consideration of various objections that have been advanced as well as a sympathetic exposition of the core principles of each approach. Throughout he uses a wide range of examples, and integrates references to issues in applied ethics with his discussions of ethical theory.


The Sense of Space

The Sense of Space

Author: David Morris

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0791484599

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The Sense of Space brings together space and body to show that space is a plastic environment, charged with meaning, that reflects the distinctive character of human embodiment in the full range of its moving, perceptual, emotional, expressive, developmental, and social capacities. Drawing on the philosophies of Merleau-Ponty and Bergson, as well as contemporary psychology to develop a renewed account of the moving, perceiving body, the book suggests that our sense of space ultimately reflects our ethical relations to other people and to the places we inhabit.


The Madwoman in the Academy

The Madwoman in the Academy

Author: Deborah Schnitzer

Publisher: University of Calgary Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1552380815

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An original and highly subversive critique of the academy by women affiliated with universities and colleges across Canada, The Madwoman in the Academy: Women Boldly Take on the Ivory Tower explores topics familiar to women working in academia around the world: the clash between family and work, the politics of academe, and the rifts between an academic career and political activism. Contributors offer writings in a wide range of genres, including personal essays, poetry, short stories, dialogues, and other innovative formats, daring to confront their experiences with energy, anger, wit, and humour. Ranging from the playful to the painful, The Madwoman in the Academy brings you names well known to literary communities alongside new but feisty voices that will forever change readers' ideas about the relationship between women and the academy.


The Hateful and the Obscene

The Hateful and the Obscene

Author: Leonard W. Sumner

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2004-11-06

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1442631554

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In a series of landmark decisions since 1990, Canadian courts have shaped a distinctive approach to the regulation of obscenity, hate literature, and child pornography. Missing from the debate, however, has been any attempt to determine whether the legal status quo can be justified by reference to a framework of moral/political principles. The Hateful and the Obscene is intended to fill that gap. L.W. Sumner brings philosophical depth and theoretical rigour to some of the most important and difficult questions concerning free expression. Building on a framework set out by J.S. Mill – that a legal restriction of expression is justified only when the expression in question is harmful to others and when the benefits of the restriction will exceed its costs – Sumner shows how the Canadian courts have replicated Mill's framework in their interpretation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Hateful and the Obscene is a compelling interpretation of freedom of expression that combines serious philosophical thought with a focus on Canadian law, thus maintaining the breadth to deal with both obscenity and hate literature.