Mind and Nature
Author: Hermann Weyl
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2015-09-30
Total Pages: 112
ISBN-13: 1512819328
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA new study of the mathematical-physical mode of cognition.
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Norms of Nature
Author: Paul Sheldon Davies
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2003-01-24
Total Pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9780262262378
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe components of living systems strike us as functional-as for the sake of certain ends—and as endowed with specific norms of performance. The mammalian eye, for example, has the function of perceiving and processing light, and possession of this property tempts us to claim that token eyes are supposed to perceive and process light. That is, we tend to evaluate the performance of token eyes against the norm described in the attributed functional property. Hence the norms of nature. What, then, are the norms of nature? Whence do they arise? Out of what natural properties or relations are they constituted? In Norms of Nature, Paul Sheldon Davies argues against the prevailing view that natural norms are constituted out of some form of historical success—usually success in natural selection. He defends the view that functions are nothing more than effects that contribute to the exercise of some more general systemic capacity. Natural functions exist insofar as the components of natural systems contribute to the exercise of systemic capacities. This is so irrespective of the system's history. Even if the mammalian eye had never been selected for, it would have the function of perceiving and processing light, because those are the effects that contribute to the exercise of the visual system. The systemic approach to conceptualizing natural norms, claims Davies, is superior to the historical approach in several important ways. Especially significant is that it helps us understand how the attribution of functions within the life sciences coheres with the methods and ontology of the natural sciences generally.
Selected Political Writings
Author: Saint Thomas (Aquinas)
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Imports
Published: 1981
Total Pages: 100
ISBN-13: 9780389202448
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSelected Writings on Self-organization, Philosophy, Bioethics, and Judaism
Author: Henri Atlan
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 481
ISBN-13: 082323181X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDuring the last thirty years, biophysicist and philosopher Henri Atlan has been a major voice in contemporary European philosophical and bio-ethical debates. In a massive oeuvre that ranges from biology and neural network theory to Spinoza's thought and the history of philosophy, and from artificial intelligence and information theory to Jewish mysticism and to contemporary medical ethics, Atlan has come to offer an exceptionally powerful philosophical argumentation that is as hostile to scientism as it is attentive to biology's conceptual and experimental rigor, as careful with concepts of rationality as it is committed to rethinking the human place in a radically determined yet forever changing world. --Book Jacket.
The Elements of Choice
Author: Eric J. Johnson
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2021-10-12
Total Pages: 401
ISBN-13: 0593084438
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA leader in decision-making research reveals how choices are designed—and why it’s so important to understand their inner workings Every time we make a choice, our minds go through an elaborate process most of us never even notice. We’re influenced by subtle aspects of the way the choice is presented that often make the difference between a good decision and a bad one. How do we overcome the common faults in our decision-making and enable better choices in any situation? The answer lies in more conscious and intentional decision design. Going well beyond the familiar concepts of nudges and defaults, The Elements of Choice offers a comprehensive, systematic guide to creating effective choice architectures, the environments in which we make decisions. The designers of decisions need to consider all the elements involved in presenting a choice: how many options to offer, how to present those options, how to account for our natural cognitive shortcuts, and much more. These levers are unappreciated and we’re often unaware of just how much they influence our reasoning every day. Eric J. Johnson is the lead researcher behind some of the most well-known and cited research on decision-making. He draws on his original studies and extensive work in business and public policy and synthesizes the latest research in the field to reveal how the structure of choices affects outcomes. We are all choice architects, for ourselves and for others. Whether you’re helping students choose the right school, helping patients pick the best health insurance plan, or deciding how to invest for your own retirement, this book provides the tools you need to guide anyone to the decision that’s right for them.
Nature's Challenge to Free Will
Author: Bernard Berofsky
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-01-05
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 0199640017
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book offers a defense of humean compatibilism, which bases the belief in the compatibility of free will and determinism on David Hume's idea that laws do not uphold the existence of necessary connections in nature.
The Idea of Nature
Author: Robin George Collingwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1960-12-31
Total Pages: 194
ISBN-13: 0198020015
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCollingwood's theory of philosophical method applied to the problem of the philosophy of nature.
Charles S. Peirce
Author: Charles Sanders Peirce
Publisher:
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 350
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPhysicist, mathematician, and logician Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914) was America's first internationally recognized philosopher, the man who created the concept of "pragmatism," later popularized by William James. Charles S. Peirce: The Essential Writings is a comprehensive collection of the philosopher's writings, including: "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man" (1868), which outlines his theory of knowledge; a review of the works of George Berkeley; papers from between 1877 and 1905 developing the ground of pragmatism and Peirce's theory of scientific inquiry; his basic concept of metaphysics (1891-93); and the important 1902 articles in Baldwin's dictionary on his later pragmatism (or pragmaticism), uniformity, and synechism. Included are Peirce's well-known essays: "The Fixation of Belief" and "How to Make Our Ideas Clear." Book jacket.
Michael Oakeshott Selected Writings Collection
Author: Michael Oakeshott
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Published: 2014-08-26
Total Pages: 2193
ISBN-13: 1845407814
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA collection of 6 volumes of Oakeshott's work: Notebooks, 1922-86, Early Political Writings 1925-30, The Concept of a Philosophical Jurisprudence, Vocabulary of a Modern European State, Lectures in the History of Political Thought, and What is History?
Discourses and Selected Writings
Author: Epictetus
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2008-08-28
Total Pages: 365
ISBN-13: 0141917482
DOWNLOAD EBOOKContains The Discourses/Fragments/Enchiridion 'I must die. But must I die bawling?' Epictetus, a Greek Stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Nicopolis in the early second century AD. His animated discussions were celebrated for their rhetorical wizardry and were written down by Arrian, his most famous pupil. The Discourses argue that happiness lies in learning to perceive exactly what is in our power to change and what is not, and in embracing our fate to live in harmony with god and nature. In this personal, practical guide to the ethics of Stoicism and moral self-improvement, Epictetus tackles questions of freedom and imprisonment, illness and fear, family, friendship and love. Translated and Edited with an Introduction by Robert Dobbin
