Showing titles in Epistemology

On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic is an 1887 work by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It consists of a preface and three interconnected essays that expand on concepts Nietzsche first raised in Beyond Good and Evil (1886). The three essays question and critique the value of our moral judgments based on a method whereby Nietzsche examines the origins and meanings of our different moral concepts.

With the lucid verve and solid scientific grounding of an Oliver Sacks or Malcolm Gladwell, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler guides listeners on a fascinating tour of the bedrock of our existence - the way our senses perceive everything and everyone in the world around us. Why does one person see Jesus in a shower curtain, get a "bad feeling" about someone they've just met, or hear a conversation so differently than the other person? Boxer Wachler describes some of the mysterious medical conditions that cause non-psychiatric hallucinations and neurological mix-ups.

I first encountered the mystical logic of Nicholas of Cusa when I read S.L. Frank's magnificent (and underappreciated) volume, The Unknowable. I was both mesmerized and haunted by Cusa's koan-like summation of his philosophy when he wrote, "The unattainable is attained by its unattainment." As Socrates and other mystic-philosophers before him, Nicholas of Cusa had realized through mathematics and geometry that infinity cannot be comprehended by that which is finite.

A compelling investigation into one of our most coveted and cherished ideals, and the efforts of modern science to penetrate the mysterious nature of this timeless virtue. We all recognize wisdom, but defining it is more elusive. In this fascinating journey from philosophy to science, Stephen S. Hall gives us a dramatic history of wisdom, from its sudden emergence in four different locations (Greece, China, Israel, and India) in the fifth century B.C. to its modern manifestations.

David Hume fue un filósofo, economista e historiador escocés del siglo XVIII, considerado una de las figuras más importantes del empirismo y del escepticismo filosófico. Su obra aborda profundamente la naturaleza humana, la sociedad y la moral, influyendo significativamente en el desarrollo de la filosofía moderna.

This audiobook explores various agnostic ideas and statements from such luminous thinkers are Bertrand Russell, Clarence Darrow, Thomas Henry Huxley, Joseph McCabe, etc. With contributions by professors Andrea Diem-Lane and David Christopher Lane. From the Foreword: "When Spencer Tracy, playing Clarence Darrow in the movie Inherit the Wind, takes the Bible in one hand and On Origin of Species in the other and clasps them together side by side to illustrate how science and religion can work together, one is led to assume that Darrow was indeed a theist evolutionist".

This revolutionary treatise starts from one fundamental premise: that our phenomenal consciousness includes direct experience of value. For too long, ethical theorists have looked for value in external states of affairs or reduced value to a projection of the mind onto them. The result, unsurprisingly, is widespread antirealism about ethics. In this book, Sharon Hewitt Rawlette turns our metaethical gaze inward and dares us to consider that value, rather than being something “out there”, is a quality woven into the very fabric of our conscious experience, in a highly objective way.

¿Puede la filosofía dar respuestas a los problemas de la actualidad? ¿Puede enseñarnos a pensar en la muerte al margen de nuestra angustia existencial? ¿Una perspectiva filosófica nos ayuda a ver al otro como tal? ¿Cómo pensar en el poder cuando, en realidad, el poder nos atraviesa? ¿Qué se revela cuando la filosofía cuestiona la linealidad del tiempo?

More than at any other time in human history, we live in an age defined by movement and mobility; yet, we lack a unifying theory which takes this seriously as a starting point for philosophy. The history of philosophy has systematically explained movement as derived from something else that does not move: space, eternity, force, and time.

A landmark of Enlightenment thought, Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is accompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh, Hume's response to those accusing him of atheism, of advocating extreme skepticism, and of undermining the foundations of morality; and his Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature, which anticipates discussions developed in the Enquiry.

Back in the 1980s, I used to write articles for Fate Magazine, adding a little extra money to my teaching job at Warren College as I was attending graduate school at the University of California, San Diego. Eventually, I was asked to become a part-time book reviewer for the publication. It was a great gig since they would send me the latest books that they received in the office. Most of the texts dealt with excursions into the paranormal—ranging from Edgar Cayce readings to near-death experiences.

This 16th century treatise is an extended analysis of how to acquire and maintain political power. It includes 26 chapters and an opening dedication to Lorenzo de Medici. The dedication declares Machiavelli's intention to discuss in plain language the conduct of great men and the principles of princely government. He does so in hope of pleasing and enlightening the Medici family.

Beginning with a detailed discussion of the role of mathematics and experimentation in validating generalizations in physics-looking closely at the reasoning of scientists such as Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Lavoisier, and Maxwell-Harriman skillfully argues that the inductive method used in philosophy is in principle indistinguishable from the method used in physics.

A thoroughly updated introduction to the concepts, methods, and standards of critical thinking, A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking: Deciding What to Do and Believe, Second Edition is a unique presentation of the formal strategies used when thinking through reasons and arguments in many areas of expertise. Pursuing an interdisciplinary approach to critical thinking, the audiobook offers a broad conception of critical thinking and explores the practical relevance to conducting research across fields such as, business, education, and the biological sciences.

This short audio on logic argues that logic and science can go hand in hand, and that, by taking observations of perceptions and sensations, and applying logical analysis to them, you have the power to build conceptual models and frameworks that you can use in order to predict what you should do in the future and to reason how to solve the problems in your life.

Philosophical Foundation argues for clarity over and against meaninglessness, which is implicit in various forms of skepticism and fideism. Throughout the book, critical analysis is applied to unexamined assumptions in the areas of metaphysics and ethics in order to address long-standing disputes.

In Stop Being Reasonable, philosopher and journalist Eleanor Gordon-Smith tells six lucid, gripping stories that show the limits of human reason. From the woman who realised her husband harboured a terrible secret, to the man who left the cult he had been raised in since birth, and the British reality TV contestant who, having impersonated someone else for a month, discovered he could no longer return to his former identity, all of the people interviewed radically altered their beliefs about the things that matter most.

The Secret Codes of the Mind: Introduction to Philosophy is a transformative journey into the art of clear thinking, wise decision-making, and profound self-awareness.

We appear to find ourselves in a crisis of polarization and failed communication. What can we do about it? This essay argues that part of the solution may be to aspire for more nuanced and balanced perspectives, by engaging charitably with many different viewpoints.

What happened to philosophy in the 20th century? Laurie Calhoun has an answer to this question, but you are probably not going to like it - certainly not if you are comfortably ensconced in academia. That would make you one of “the experts” taken to task and whose “expertise” is unmasked in Theodicy. Theodicy is a radical work of metaphilosophy, which begins as a deceptively simple examination of the question: how would things be different, if perspectivism rather than absolutism were true?