Philosophical Devices

Author : David Papineau
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191656240
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Philosophical Devices: Proofs, Probabilities, Possibilities, and Sets written by David Papineau and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-10-04 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed to explain the technical ideas that are taken for granted in much contemporary philosophical writing. Notions like denumerability, modal scope distinction, Bayesian conditionalization, and logical completeness are usually only elucidated deep within difficult specialist texts. By offering simple explanations that by-pass much irrelevant and boring detail, Philosophical Devices is able to cover a wealth of material that isnormally only available to specialists. The book contains four sections, each of three chapters. The first section is about sets and numbers, starting with the membership relation and ending with the generalized continuum hypothesis. The second is about analyticity, a prioricity, and necessity. The third is about probability, outlining the difference between objective and subjective probability and exploring aspects of conditionalization and correlation. The fourth deals with metalogic, focusing on the contrast between syntax andsemantics, and finishing with a sketch of Gödels theorem. Philosophical Devices will be useful for university students who have got past the foothills of philosophy and are starting to read more widely, but it does not assume any prior expertise. All the issues discussed are intrinsically interesting, and often downright fascinating. It can be read with pleasure and profit by anybody who is curious about the technical infrastructure of contemporary philosophy.

Author : Daniel Rothbart
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252056248
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Philosophical Instruments written by Daniel Rothbart and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2024-02-12 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising roles of instruments and experimentation in acquiring knowledge In Philosophical Instruments Daniel Rothbart argues that our tools are not just neutral intermediaries between humans and the natural world, but are devices that demand new ideas about reality. Just as a hunter's new spear can change their knowledge of the environment, so can the development of modern scientific equipment alter our view of the world. Working at the intersections of science, technology, and philosophy, Rothbart examines the revolution in knowledge brought on by recent advances in scientific instruments. Full of examples from historical and contemporary science, including electron scanning microscopes, sixteenth-century philosophical instruments, and diffraction devices used by biochemical researchers, Rothbart explores the ways in which instrumentation advances a philosophical stance about an instrument's power, an experimenter's skills, and a specimen's properties. Through a close reading of engineering of instruments, he introduces a philosophy from (rather than of) design, contending that philosophical ideas are channeled from design plans to models and from model into the use of the devices.

Author : Davis Baird
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520928202
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Thing Knowledge written by Davis Baird and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2004-02-10 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western philosophers have traditionally concentrated on theory as the means for expressing knowledge about a variety of phenomena. This absorbing book challenges this fundamental notion by showing how objects themselves, specifically scientific instruments, can express knowledge. As he considers numerous intriguing examples, Davis Baird gives us the tools to "read" the material products of science and technology and to understand their place in culture. Making a provocative and original challenge to our conception of knowledge itself, Thing Knowledge demands that we take a new look at theories of science and technology, knowledge, progress, and change. Baird considers a wide range of instruments, including Faraday's first electric motor, eighteenth-century mechanical models of the solar system, the cyclotron, various instruments developed by analytical chemists between 1930 and 1960, spectrometers, and more.

Author : Albert Borgmann
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022616358X
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life written by Albert Borgmann and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-08-14 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blending social analysis and philosophy, Albert Borgmann maintains that technology creates a controlling pattern in our lives. This pattern, discernible even in such an inconspicuous action as switching on a stereo, has global effects: it sharply divides life into labor and leisure, it sustains the industrial democracies, and it fosters the view that the earth itself is a technological device. He argues that technology has served us as well in conquering hunger and disease, but that when we turn to it for richer experiences, it leads instead to a life dominated by effortless and thoughtless consumption. Borgmann does not reject technology but calls for public conversation about the nature of the good life. He counsels us to make room in a technological age for matters of ultimate concern—things and practices that engage us in their own right.

Author : Gary Alan Scott
Publisher : Northwestern University Press
ISBN 13 : 0810123568
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Philosophy in Dialogue written by Gary Alan Scott and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-13 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional Plato scholarship, in the English-speaking world, has assumed that Platonic dialogues are merely collections of arguments. Inevitably, the question arises: If Plato wanted to present collections of arguments, why did he write dialogues instead of treatises? Concerned about this question, some scholars have been experimenting with other, more contextualized ways of reading the dialogues. This anthology is among the first to present these new approaches as pursued by a variety of scholars. As such, it offers new perspectives on Plato as well as a suggestive view of Plato scholarship as something of a laboratory for historians of philosophy generally. The essays gathered here each examine vital aspects of Plato’s many methods, considering his dialogues in relation to Thucydides and Homer, narrative strategies and medical practice, images and metaphors. They offer surprising new research into such much-studied works as The Republic as well as revealing views of lesser-known dialogues like the Cratylus and Philebus. With reference to thinkers such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Sartre, the authors place the Platonic dialogues in an illuminating historical context. Together, their essays should reinvigorate the scholarly examination of the way Plato’s dialogues “work”—and should prompt a reconsideration of how the form of Plato’s philosophical writing bears on the Platonic conception of philosophy.

Author : David Papineau
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199651728
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Philosophical Devices written by David Papineau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-04 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophical Devices introduces the technical ideas that are taken for granted in contemporary philosophical writing. It offers simple explanations and covers a wealth of material that is normally available only to specialists. This original, distinctive book will appeal to anyone who is curious about the technical infrastructure of philosophy.

Author : Peter-Paul Verbeek
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 9780271046563
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book What Things Do written by Peter-Paul Verbeek and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are all these things affecting us? How can their role in our lives be understood? What Things Do answers these questions by focusing on how technologies mediate our actions and our perceptions of the world.

Author : Theodore Sider
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192658816
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Logic for Philosophy written by Theodore Sider and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Logic for Philosophy is an introduction to logic for students of contemporary philosophy. It is suitable both for advanced undergraduates and for beginning graduate students in philosophy. It covers (i) basic approaches to logic, including proof theory and especially model theory, (ii) extensions of standard logic that are important in philosophy, and (iii) some elementary philosophy of logic. It emphasizes breadth rather than depth. For example, it discusses modal logic and counterfactuals, but does not prove the central metalogical results for predicate logic (completeness, undecidability, etc.) Its goal is to introduce students to the logic they need to know in order to read contemporary philosophical work. It is very user-friendly for students without an extensive background in mathematics. In short, this book gives you the understanding of logic that you need to do philosophy.

Author : Rod L. Evans Ph.D.
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1440622078
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge written by Rod L. Evans Ph.D. and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-06-21 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When is a "tulip"* not a flower? When it's one of hundreds of mnemonic devices in this comprehensive sourcebook. From remembering the notes on a scale (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge) to correctly performing geometric equations (Soh-Cah-Toa) to using "HOMES" for conjuring up the Great Lakes (Huron Ontario Michigan Erie Superior), mnemonic devices have helped countless students, teachers, and trivia buffs recall key information in a snap-using anagrams, clever rhymes, and word games. In this comprehensive guide, readers will find a wide spectrum of ingeniously simple mnemonic devices for recalling facts about: - Science - Math - Geography - Religion - Literature - Music - Social Studies - Law - Aviation - Zodiac - Spelling - Mythology - World History - Sports - And more *Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement; Irrestible Grace, and Perserverance of the Saints (The Five Tenets of Calvinism)

Author : Massimo Borghesi
Publisher : Liturgical Press
ISBN 13 : 0814687911
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Mind of Pope Francis written by Massimo Borghesi and published by Liturgical Press. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A commonly held impression is that Pope Francis is a compassionate shepherd and determined leader but that he lacks the intellectual depth of his recent predecessors. Massimo Borghesi’s The Mind of Pope Francis: Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s Intellectual Journey dismantles that image. Borghesi recounts and analyzes, for the first time, Bergoglio’s intellectual formation, exploring the philosophical, theological, and spiritual principles that support the profound vision at the heart of this pope’s teaching and ministry. Central to that vision is the church as a coincidentia oppositorum, holding together what might seem to be opposing and irreconcilable realities. Among his guiding lights have been the Jesuit saints, Ignatius and Peter Faber; philosophers Gaston Fessard, Romano Guardini, and Alberto Methol Ferrer; and theologians Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Recognizing how these various strands have come together to shape the mind and heart of Jorge Mario Bergoglio offers essential insights into who he is and the way he is leading the church. Notably, this groundbreaking book is informed by four interviews provided to the author, via audio recordings, by the pope himself on his own intellectual formation, major portions of which are published here for the first time.