Philosophy and Science, an Exploratory Approach to Consciousness
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2003
Total Pages: 488
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKContributed seminar papers.
Posts
The Collected Writings of Jaysankar Lal Shaw: Indian Analytic and Anglophone Philosophy
Author: Jaysankar Lal Shaw
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-09-22
Total Pages: 529
ISBN-13: 1474245064
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOne of the first philosophers to relate Indian philosophical thought to Western analytic philosophy, Jaysankar Lal Shaw has been reflecting on analytic themes from Indian philosophy for over 40 years. This collection of his most important writings, introduces his work and presents new ways of using Indian classical thought to approach and understand Western philosophy. By expanding, reinterpreting and reclassifying concepts and views of Indian philosophers, Shaw applies them to the main issues and theories discussed in contemporary philosophy of language and epistemology. Carefully constructed, this volume of his collected writings, shows the parallels Shaw draws between core topics in both traditions, such as proper names, definite descriptions, meaning of a sentence, knowledge, doubt, inference and testimony. It captures how Shaw uses the techniques and concepts of Indian philosophers, especially the followers of the Navya-Nyaya, to address global problems like false belief, higher order knowledge and extraordinary perception. Exploring timeless ideas from Indian thought alongside major issues in contemporary philosophy, Shaw reveals how the two traditions can interact and throw light on each other, providing better solutions to philosophical problems. He has also reflected on modern issues such as freedom, morality and harmony from the classical Indian thought. Featuring a glossary and updates to his writings,The Collected Writings of Jaysankar Lal Shaw: Indian Analytic and Anglophone Philosophy also includes new work by Shaw on the relationship between Indian and analytic philosophy today.
Thinker, Thought and Knowledge
Author: V.N. Mishra
Publisher: DK Printworld (P) Ltd
Published: 2022-11-08
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 8124611270
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThinker, Thought and Knowledge critically and analytically reasons that some of the philosophical expositions like “thought has created the thinker” and “higher-order thoughts are themselves conscious” hinder us from explaining our sense of unity of consciousness. This book presents and elucidates some observations – thought cannot create thinker; along with thinker and thought, thinking too is quintessential for individual experience to take place; thinker, thinking and thought are fundamentally one in self-consciousness; thought becomes the object of self-consciousness; and the modern science attempts to undermine the principle of causation – from the East–West perspective, and registers its disproval with the philosophical views of scholars like J. Krishnamurti and a few other modern philosophers. Coming to the knowledge aspect, the volume delineates the relative existence and knowledge dealing with the absolute reality, and discusses it on the basis of Adavaita VedÀnta and the YogÀcÀra VijðÀnavÀda of the Buddhist philosophy along with Immanuel Kant’s theory of knowledge. The researcher’s approach employed in this volume should help the students of philosophy and other discerning readers take an analytical and critical positioning towards many a philosophical problem that they come across.
Philosophical Consciousness and Scientific Knowledge
Author: Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya
Publisher:
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 596
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Main Issues That Figure In The Very Title Of This Volume Are Indicative Of Its Scope And Contents. First, Philosophical Studies In Consciousness Have Their Persuppositions As Well As Implications. Secondly, In Order To Understant Clearly The Said Pre-Suppositions And Implications, The Intended Reader Group Needs To Tbe Introduced At Least To Some Core Concepts Of Philosophy And Science In Their Modern Sense. Thirdly, Since This Work Is Cross-Disciplinary In Its Orientation, The Conceptual Linkages Between Science And Philosophy Have Been Explored By Distinguished Philosophers And Scientists In Several Contributions To This Publication. Finally, A Conscious Attempt Has Been Made In Many Papers Of This Work That Every Branch Of Valid Knowledge, Philosophy Or Science, However Theoretically Abstract It May Be, Has Its Practical Moorings And The Same Are Temporarily Traceable. From The Available History Of Philosophy And Science It Is Found That These Disciplines Were Integrated In The Ancient Times. Differentiation Has Been Due To Endlessly Increasing Specialization Within Each Discipline. Even Today Many Philosophers And Historians Of Science Are Studying Carefully The Relation Between Different Strata Of Disciplines. The Emphasis On The Above Issues Is Intended, Among Other Things, To Avoid The Extremes Of Reductionosm, Mistakes Of Value-Fact Dualism, And To Clarify The Connection Between Theory And Practice, Experience And Experiment, Discovery And Legitimization Of Truth-Claims. In An Anthology Like This, Difference In Pre-Suppositions And Conclusions Of The Contributors, Cannot Be Ruled Out. Respect For The Freedom Of Thought, A Hallmark Of The Project, Has Been Tempered By Commitment To Reasoning. This Book, Primary Meant For Fairly Educated Readers, Is Likely To Be Of Interest To The Researchers In The Areas Of Social And Natural Science, And The Reading Public.
Integral Biomathics
Author: Plamen L. Simeonov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2012-07-13
Total Pages: 424
ISBN-13: 3642281117
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPerhaps the most distinct question in science throughout the ages has been the one of perceivable reality, treated both in physics and philosophy. Reality is acting upon us, and we, and life in general, are acting upon reality. Potentiality, found both in quantum reality and in the activity of life, plays a key role. In quantum reality observation turns potentiality into reality. Again, life computes possibilities in various ways based on past actions, and acts on the basis of these computations. This book is about a new approach to biology (and physics, of course!). Its subtitle suggests a perpetual movement and interplay between two elusive aspects of modern science — reality/matter and potentiality/mind, between physics and biology — both captured and triggered by mathematics — to understand and explain emergence, development and life all the way up to consciousness. But what is the real/potential difference between living and non-living matter? How does time in potentiality differ from time in reality? What we need to understand these differences is an integrative approach. This book contemplates how to encircle life to obtain a formal system, equivalent to the ones in physics. Integral Biomathics attempts to explore the interplay between reality and potentiality.
The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul
Author: Simona Ginsburg
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2019-03-12
Total Pages: 665
ISBN-13: 0262039303
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA new theory about the origins of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness. What marked the evolutionary transition from organisms that lacked consciousness to those with consciousness—to minimal subjective experiencing, or, as Aristotle described it, “the sensitive soul”? In this book, Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka propose a new theory about the origin of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the transition to basic consciousness. Using a methodology similar to that used by scientists when they identified the transition from non-life to life, Ginsburg and Jablonka suggest a set of criteria, identify a marker for the transition to minimal consciousness, and explore the far-reaching biological, psychological, and philosophical implications. After presenting the historical, neurobiological, and philosophical foundations of their analysis, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose that the evolutionary marker of basic or minimal consciousness is a complex form of associative learning, which they term unlimited associative learning (UAL). UAL enables an organism to ascribe motivational value to a novel, compound, non-reflex-inducing stimulus or action, and use it as the basis for future learning. Associative learning, Ginsburg and Jablonka argue, drove the Cambrian explosion and its massive diversification of organisms. Finally, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose symbolic language as a similar type of marker for the evolutionary transition to human rationality—to Aristotle's “rational soul.”
Pragmatism's Advantage
Author: Joseph Margolis
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2010-01-29
Total Pages: 282
ISBN-13: 0804773718
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book addresses the rift between major philosophical factions in the United States, which the author describes as a "philosophically becalmed" three-legged creature made up of analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, and pragmatism. Joseph Margolis offers a modified pragmatism as the best way out of this stalemate. Whether he is examining Heidegger or rethinking the foibles of Dewey, Rorty, and Peirce, much of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western philosophy comes into play as Margolis presents his history of philosophy's evolution and defends his views. He does not, however, mean for philosophy to turn to the pragmatism of yore or even to its revival in the 1970s. Rather, he finds in recent approaches to pragmatism a middle ground between analytic philosophy's scientism (and its disinterest in analyzing human nature)and continental philosophy's reliance on attributing transcendental powers to mere mortals.
Consciousness and Moral Status
Author: Joshua Shepherd
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-05-23
Total Pages: 150
ISBN-13: 1315396327
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIt seems obvious that phenomenally conscious experience is something of great value, and that this value maps onto a range of important ethical issues. For example, claims about the value of life for those in Permanent Vegetative State (PVS); debates about treatment and study of disorders of consciousness; controversies about end-of-life care for those with advanced dementia; and arguments about the moral status of embryos, fetuses, and non-human animals arguably turn on the moral significance of various facts about consciousness. However, though work has been done on the moral significance of elements of consciousness, such as pain and pleasure, little explicit attention has been devoted to the ethical significance of consciousness. In this book Joshua Shepherd presents a systematic account of the value present within conscious experience. This account emphasizes not only the nature of consciousness, but also the importance of items within experience such as affect, valence, and the complex overall shape of particular valuable experiences. Shepherd also relates this account to difficult cases involving non-humans and humans with disorders of consciousness, arguing that the value of consciousness influences and partially explains the degree of moral status a being possesses, without fully determining it. The upshot is a deeper understanding of both the moral importance of phenomenal consciousness and its relations to moral status. This book will be of great interest to philosophers and students of ethics, bioethics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science.
Vedic Vision of Consciousness and Reality
Author: Satya Prakash Singh
Publisher:
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 538
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKVedic Vision Of Consciousness And Reality Is An Attempt At A Systematic Presentation Of The Visions Of Vedic Seers Concerning Consciousness In Relationship To Reality. The Relevance Of This Attempt Has Got Enhanced Today Due To Latest Discoveries In Quantum Physics Tending To Accord Some Sort Of Substantiality To Consciousness. This Is The Position Vedic Seers Held Long Ago As Is Evident From The Vedanta. The Vedanta, However Has Ignored The Vedic Samhitas On Metaphusical Issues Including Consciousness. The Present Work Has Come In Fulfillment Of This Lacuna In The Tradition Of Vedic Thought. It Has Been Shown Here Strictly On The Basis Of Textual Evidence How The Vedic Seers Were Involved In The Search For Consciousness In Its Purest Form Coinciding With Reality. The Coincidence Of The Modern Science In Its Latest Developments With The Vedic Viewpoint In This Regard, Suggests The Necessity Of A Paradigmatic Shift In The Human Thinking At This Juncture From Matter To Consciousness As The Most Fundamental Reality. These Issues Have Been Discussed Here From Various Viewpoints Including Scientific, Philosophical, Psychological, Theological And Epistemological.
The Opacity of Mind
Author: Peter Carruthers
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2013-08
Total Pages: 454
ISBN-13: 0199685142
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDo we have introspective access to our own thoughts? Peter Carruthers challenges the consensus that we do: he argues that access to our own thoughts is always interpretive, grounded in perceptual awareness and sensory imagery. He proposes a bold new theory of self-knowledge, with radical implications for understanding of consciousness and agency.
