The Activity of Being

The Activity of Being

Author: Aryeh Kosman

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0674075021

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Understanding “what something is” has long occupied philosophers, and no Western thinker has had more influence on the nature of being than Aristotle. Focusing on a reinterpretation of the concept of energeia as “activity,” Aryeh Kosman reexamines Aristotle’s ontology and some of our most basic assumptions about the great philosopher’s thought.


Scientific Ontology

Scientific Ontology

Author: Anjan Chakravartty

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0190651458

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Though science and philosophy take different approaches to ontology, metaphysical inferences are relevant to interpreting scientific work, and empirical investigations are relevant to philosophy. This book argues that there is no uniquely rational way to determine which domains of ontology are appropriate for belief, making room for choice in a transformative account of scientific ontology.


Idea and Ontology

Idea and Ontology

Author: Marc A. Hight

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2010-11

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0271047658

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"A wide-ranging study of the 'way of ideas' and its metaphysics, culminating in a bold reinterpretation of Berkeley."


Theory and Applications of Ontology: Philosophical Perspectives

Theory and Applications of Ontology: Philosophical Perspectives

Author: Roberto Poli

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-08-28

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 9048188458

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Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of ‘what there is’. Recently, however, a field called ‘ontology’ has become part of the rapidly growing research industry in information technology. The two fields have more in common than just their name. Theory and Applications of Ontology is a two-volume anthology that aims to further an informed discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills an important lacuna in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method, presenting directions of current research in either field, and highlighting areas of productive interdisciplinary contact. Theory and Applications of Ontology: Philosophical Perspectives presents ontology in philosophy in ways that computer scientists are not likely to find elsewhere. The volume offers an overview of current research traditions in ontology, contrasting analytical, phenomenological, and hermeneutic approaches. It introduces the reader to current philosophical research on those categories of everyday and scientific reasoning that are most relevant to present and future research in information technology.


Castoriadis's Ontology

Castoriadis's Ontology

Author: Suzi Adams

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0823234584

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This book is the first systematic reconstruction of Castoriadis's philosophical trajectory. It critically interprets the shifts in his ontology by reconsidering the ancient problematic of human institution(nomos) and nature(physis), on the one hand, and the question of beingand creation, on the other.Unlike the order of physis, the order of nomos has played no substantial role in the development of Western thought. The first part of the book suggests that Castoriadis sought to remedy this by elucidating the social-historical as the region of being that eludes the determinist imaginary of inherited philosophy. This ontological turn was announced in his 1975 magnum opus, The Imaginary Institution of Society.With the aid of archival sources, the second half of the book reconstructs a second ontological shift in Castoriadis's thought that occurred during the 1980s. The author argues that Castoriadis extends his notion of ontological creationbeyond the human realm and into nature. This move has implications for his overall ontology and signals a shift toward a general ontology of creative physis


The Philosophy of Ontological Lateness

The Philosophy of Ontological Lateness

Author: Keith Whitmoyer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-07

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1350003964

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Addressing Merleau-Ponty's work Phenomenology of Perception, in dialogue with The Visible and the Invisible, his lectures at the Collège de France, and his reading of Proust, this book argues that at play in his thought is a philosophy of “ontological lateness”. This describes the manner in which philosophical reflection is fated to lag behind its objects; therefore an absolute grasp on being remains beyond its reach. Merleau-Ponty articulates this philosophy against the backdrop of what he calls “cruel thought”, a style of reflecting that seeks resolution by limiting, circumscribing, and arresting its object. By contrast, the philosophy of ontological lateness seeks no such finality-no apocalypsis or unveiling-but is characterized by its ability to accept the veiling of being and its own constitutive lack of punctuality. To this extent, his thinking inaugurates a new relation to the becoming of sense that overcomes cruel thought. Merleau-Ponty's work gives voice to a wisdom of dispossession that allows for the withdrawal of being. Never before has anyone engaged with the theme of Merleau-Ponty's own understanding of philosophy in such a sustained way as Whitmoyer does in this volume.


Ontology and Metaontology

Ontology and Metaontology

Author: Francesco Berto

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-01-29

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1472573307

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Ontology and Metaontology: A Contemporary Guide is a clear and accessible survey of ontology, focusing on the most recent trends in the discipline. Divided into parts, the first half characterizes metaontology: the discourse on the methodology of ontological inquiry, covering the main concepts, tools, and methods of the discipline, exploring the notions of being and existence, ontological commitment, paraphrase strategies, fictionalist strategies, and other metaontological questions. The second half considers a series of case studies, introducing and familiarizing the reader with concrete examples of the latest research in the field. The basic sub-fields of ontology are covered here via an accessible and captivating exposition: events, properties, universals, abstract objects, possible worlds, material beings, mereology, fictional objects. The guide's modular structure allows for a flexible approach to the subject, making it suitable for both undergraduates and postgraduates looking to better understand and apply the exciting developments and debates taking place in ontology today.


Aristotle's Ontology of Change

Aristotle's Ontology of Change

Author: Mark Sentesy

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 2020-04-15

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0810141906

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This book investigates what change is, according to Aristotle, and how it affects his conception of being. Mark Sentesy argues that the analysis of change leads Aristotle to develop first-order metaphysical concepts such as matter, potency, actuality, sources of being, epigenesis, and teleology. He shows that Aristotle’s distinctive ontological claim—that being is inescapably diverse in kind—is anchored in his argument for the existence of change. Aristotle may be the only thinker to propose a noncircular definition of change. With his landmark argument that change did, in fact, exist, Aristotle challenged established assumptions about what it is and developed a set of conceptual frameworks that continue to provide insight into the nature of reality. This groundbreaking work on change, however, has long been interpreted through a Platonist view of change as unreal. By offering a comprehensive reexamination of Aristotle’s pivotal arguments, and establishing his positive ontological conception of change, Sentesy makes a significant contribution to scholarship on Aristotle, ancient philosophy, the history and philosophy of science, and metaphysics.


The Ontology and Function of Money

The Ontology and Function of Money

Author: Leonidas Zelmanovitz

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2015-12-24

Total Pages: 471

ISBN-13: 0739195123

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The central thesis of the book is that in order to evaluate monetary policy, one should have a clear idea about the characteristics and functions of money as it evolved and in its current form. That is to say that without an understanding about how money evolved as a social institution, what it is today, and what is possible to know about monetary phenomena, it is not possible to develop a meaningful ethics for money; or, to put it differently, to find what kind of institutional arrangements may be deemed good money for the kind of society we are in. And without that, one faces severe limitations in offering a normative position about monetary policy. The project is, consequently, an interdisciplinary one. Its main thread is an inquiry of moral philosophy and its foundations, as applied to money, in order to create tools to evaluate public policy in regard to money, banking, and public finance; and the views of different schools on those topics are discussed. The book is organized in parts on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics of money to facilitate the presentation of all the subjects discussed to an educated readership (and not necessarily just one with a background in economics).


Ontology Made Easy

Ontology Made Easy

Author: Amie Lynn Thomasson

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0199385114

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Existence questions have been topics for heated debates in metaphysics, but this book argues that they can often be answered easily, by trivial inferences from uncontroversial premises. This 'easy' approach to ontology leads to realism about disputed entities, and to the view that metaphysical disputes about existence questions are misguided.