Boccaccio the Philosopher
Boccaccio the Philosopher

Author: Filippo Andrei

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-10-07

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 3319651153

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This book explores the tangled relationship between literary production and epistemological foundation as exemplified in one of the masterpieces of Italian literature. Filippo Andrei argues that Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron has a significant though concealed engagement with philosophy, and that the philosophical implications of its narratives can be understood through an epistemological approach to the text. He analyzes the influence of Dante, Petrarch, Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, and other classical and medieval thinkers on Boccaccio's attitudes towards ethics and knowledge-seeking. Beyond providing an epistemological reading of the Decameron, this book also evaluates how a theoretical reflection on the nature of rhetoric and poetic imagination can ultimately elicit a theory of knowledge.

Supersizing the Mind
Supersizing the Mind

Author: Andy Clark

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-12-31

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0199831041

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When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's notes, he saw it as a "record" of Feynman's work. Feynman himself, however, insisted that the notes were not a record but the work itself. In Supersizing the Mind, Andy Clark argues that our thinking doesn't happen only in our heads but that "certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback, feed-forward and feed-around loops: loops that promiscuously criss-cross the boundaries of brain, body and world." The pen and paper of Feynman's thought are just such feedback loops, physical machinery that shape the flow of thought and enlarge the boundaries of mind. Drawing upon recent work in psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, robotics, human-computer systems, and beyond, Supersizing the Mind offers both a tour of the emerging cognitive landscape and a sustained argument in favor of a conception of mind that is extended rather than "brain-bound." The importance of this new perspective is profound. If our minds themselves can include aspects of our social and physical environments, then the kinds of social and physical environments we create can reconfigure our minds and our capacity for thought and reason.

Universals, Concepts and Qualities
Universals, Concepts and Qualities

Author: P.F. Strawson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-03-02

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1351876708

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Are there universal properties grounding our sense of resemblance or qualitative identity among a number of distinct things or events which appear to form a class, a type or a kind of some other sort? Do universals such as humanness, triangularity, or being an oak exist? Is being a laptop computer a universal which has only recently come into existence? Do predicate expressions, adjectives or abstract nouns refer to objective properties or cognitive contents called concepts? The problem of universals has been at the centre of ancient, medieval, Western and Indian metaphysics. After the logico-linguistic turn in philosophy, this problem re-surfaced in the discourse on the meaning of predicate expressions on the one hand and in the theories of concepts on the other. By introducing newly commissioned essays written by the leading metaphysicians, epistemologists, philosophers of language and philosophers of mathematics, this anthology evinces current analytic philosophy's healthy re-engagement with this perennial problem. Issues raised include: Do properties and other abstract entities exist independently of human language and thought? Can we be in direct perceptual touch with properties or particular qualities? Is a higher order quantification over predicated properties intelligible or indispensable? Insights from current Western thought are compared with recent work in analytic Indian philosophy on such issues. No serious researcher or teacher of contemporary and comparative analytical metaphysics can afford to ignore the essays of this collection.

Philosophers of Our Times
Philosophers of Our Times

Author: Ted Honderich

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0198712502

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Eighteen of the world's most eminent philosophers of recent years tackle central questions of philosophy in this collection of the prestigious annual lectures given at the Royal Institute of Philosophy in London. The line-up of authors is stellar: Simon Blackburn, Ned Block, Tyler Burge, David Chalmers, Noam Chomsky, Jerry Fodor, Jurgen Habermas, Anthony Kenny, Christine Korsgaard, John McDowell, Alasdair MacIntyre, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit, T. M. Scanlon, John Searle, Sir Peter Strawson, Bernard Williams, and Mary Warnock. There are six pieces on questions to do with mind, perception, and action; four on reason and morality; six range over freedom, identity, religion, and politics; and the last two take a step back to look at philosophy itself and how it works. The best way to learn about philosophy is to read philosophy at its best: that is what this fascinating anthology offers.

A Philosopher Reads...Marvel Comics' Civil War
A Philosopher Reads...Marvel Comics' Civil War

Author: Mark D. White

Publisher: Ockham Publishing Group

Published: 2022-06-29

Total Pages: 726

ISBN-13: 1910780111

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We love to see superheroes fight, whether to protect innocent people from supervillains or to save the world. But superheroes also fight each other, and if we can look past the energy blasts and earth-shattering punches, we can find serious disagreements over principles and ethics. This was certainly the case when Captain America and Iron Man went head-to-head over liberty and security in Marvel Comics' epic Civil War storyline, a fictional allegory to post-9/11 America (as well as the basis for the third Captain America film). In his latest book, Mark D. White, author of The Virtues of Captain America and editor of Iron Man and Philosophy, carefully leads you through the ethical thinking of the three characters on the front lines of the Civil War: Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man. In his characteristically light and humorous tone, White lays out the basic ethical foundations of each hero's thinking and highlights the moral judgment each must use to put his ethics into action. But also how conflicting principles such as liberty and security must be balanced in the real world, lest both be lost. Written in a style that will be easily accessible to everyone, A Philosopher Reads... Marvel Comics' Civil War will be a fascinating read for diehard comic fans and philosophy buffs, as well as those looking for a simple introduction to philosophical ethics.

Ruminations: Selected Philosophical, Historical, and Ideological Papers, Volume 1, Part 2. The Finite
Ruminations: Selected Philosophical, Historical, and Ideological Papers, Volume 1, Part 2. The Finite

Author: Eric v.d. Luft

Publisher: Gegensatz Press

Published: 2020-09-13

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 1621307018

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Since the 1970s I have pursued three separate but overlapping and sometimes simultaneous careers: (1) philosopher / writer / teacher / historian of the long nineteenth century, 1789-1914; (2) editor / translator / photographer / publisher / biographer / encyclopedist; (3) cataloging librarian / rare books and special collections librarian / historian of medicine. Somehow these three vocations have garnered me some acclaim, even an entry in Who's Who in America. Each of them has resulted in some published or presented works. Because these works have been scattered in a wide variety of venues, some of which have gone out of print or have otherwise become generally unavailable - and of course with the oral presentations being gone as soon as they are given - I have thought it wise to select, epitomize, and bring them together in one place - here. Thus, what follows in these volumes is what I consider to be the most important of my shorter works. All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.